Scumwatch

The ringleader of the group who committed this crime may have been as young as 14:

A terminally-ill woman in a wheelchair has been assaulted by a group of youths who hit her on the back of the head.

Police said the attack in Woolworths in Biggin Street, Dover, Kent on Saturday, may have been filmed on a mobile phone.

The youths were seen laughing and looking at a mobile phone after the attack on Beverley McFarlane, 41, who has lymphoma, a form of cancer.

A Woolworths spokeswoman said the firm is co-operating with police and all stores had CCTV and security guards.

Mrs McFarlane said she grabbed her bag before being thumped hard in the back.

She said the attack began when one youth banged a tin of chocolates she had on her knees.

She said: "I grabbed my bag, thinking that they might grab my bag, and then another boy came behind me, and thumped me in the back.

"It was that hard it made me cry."

[...]

Staff alerted a supervisor to the incident, who radioed for police backup.

The staff then intervened and asked the boys to leave, after which the incident was "in police hands", [a Woolworths spokeswoman] said.

Of course, the ideal course of action would have been for the staff, assisted by the other customers (who seem to have done nothing whatsoever while this was going on) to secure the boys, by force if necessary, and detain them until the police arrived. But I suppose that then it would have been fifty-fifty whether the police arrested Mrs McFarlane's attackers, or the people who (hypothetically) caught them.

On the plus side, the lowlife responsible for one of the crimes I wrote about back in February has been jailed indefinitely. Of course, had he not been granted early release from prison - despite breaking a fellow inmate's jaw while incarcerated - this crime would never have happened at all:

A crack addict who left a charity worker for dead had been freed early from prison weeks earlier after another violent attack.

Ebanezer Adesina was on licence when he ferociously attacked Roger Hare after the profoundly deaf grandfather asked him to move his legs so he could get off a train.

The 20-year-old was released early from a three-year jail term for robbing two men.

While in jail, he broke a fellow inmate's jaw and was sentenced to serve 15 months concurrently for the attack.

Adesina, who was unemployed, was on the same train as 61-year-old Mr Hare, who was returning home after an evening discussing charity events in London on February 20 this year.

As he stood up to leave the train at West Dulwich station in South London, Mr Hare politely asked Adesina to move his feet so he could pass by.

Adesina remained motionless and as Mr Hare brushed past him, he stood up, swore and started to punch his victim repeatedly.

Mr Hare was struck with such force that he landed head first on the platform, shattering his skull.

Witnesses described him hitting the ground "like a sack of potatoes".

Adesina then calmly stepped over his Mr Hare's unconscious body and walked out of the station, telling a passenger who shouted at him to stop: "What's the point? He's dead already."

Mr Hare spent a week in a coma on a life-support machine.

Yesterday Adesina, from Dagenham, East London, was sent to jail indefinitely at Southwark Crown Court for causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

And a Scumwatch old boy has also found his way to chokey, albeit for only four months:

A thug who blocked the path of an ambulance carrying a dying pensioner to hospital was today jailed for four months.

Michael Boyd, 22, stood directly in front of the ambulance to prevent it making its journey to hospital.

Inside, a paramedic was treating Norman Bell, 84, who had collapsed from a massive heart attach as he played bowls at St Oswald Catholic Social Club in Ashton-in-Makerfield, Wigan, in July.

Mr Bell died the following day.

Magistrates in Wigan were told today that Boyd, a father-of-one from Belvedere Road, Newton-Le-Willows, put his hand on the windscreen of the ambulance then began to swear at the driver and shouted threats that he would kill him.

The driver set off but Boyd continued to shout threats then began to bang on the side of the ambulance.

I should point out that there's no evidence that Boyd's actions contributed to Mr Bell's death. Still, with a sentence of four months (which will mean rather less than that in practice), I have to say that Boyd has got off pretty lightly.