Teen stabbed at Church Vale, Forest Hill

A police officer just came knocking my door asking for any info about an incident outside my building, Church Vale. A teen has been stabbed. He is ok, in hospital. It happened today around 6.30pm.

That’s awful, hope he and his family are okay.

There is far too much of this going on in SE London at the moment

Where abouts on Church Vale? I live in the flats there and left for work at around 6.45pm. I did not see anything.

Not just SE, it’s all over London and as long as kids get away with carrying knives there will continue to be stabbings right left and centre. Apparently, there are dozens of stabbings every day that don’t get a mention in the press. It’s rife!

I agree, it’s bloody scary Mr.

Watching a documentary right now about this!

The statistics of London Kids/teens stabbings is shocking.

As a streetwise parent even I am shocked!

Awful, but did suspect this might have happened as I saw the confrontation start to take place when approaching Church Vale after cutting through the flats from the back of the station. Just had that look and feel about it - saw some smaller boys backing off suddenly from a bigger group. Too dark to see anyone. Did a very swift u-turn and took the longer walk back via Perry Vale. Worrying thing is this was 6.30 in the evening…

Well, on the path to the entrance of the building

We have complained many times and called police relating to the unsafety of the building as different groups of teenagers use to come into the building around that time where you can find them smoking drugs. It is quite scary when coming back from work with my 7 years old boy and seeing so many teens there knowing none of them live here. The council has said they have the money to close the building… still nothing… and I was told that one and a half year ago when I moved in.

That must have been very unnerving and I suspect many of us would have done the same. Given the outcome, I suspect the police would welcome any witnesses however useless they may feel their potential evidence to be.

Susanna, us leaseholders had a consultation notice about security doors being put in during September 2017 and I have been assured works will start this year, I have so many crime numbers I have lost count of and been in contact with the council and police and have also joined a leaseholders association in order to try to get things done. My partner has been threatened to be stabbed for asking these youths to move away from sitting on steps outside our front door on many occasions and this really was an incident waiting to happen in order for Lewisham to act. There was a debate in the House of Commons just before this happened on Anti-Social Behaviour and the effects on people living with it like us. It can be read on Hansard Online CHAN248, column 475, the daily part for 7th February.

There was another stabbing the evening before on Houston Road.

I will look into it. And meanwhike I will call the council to make pressure.

This is terrible- perhaps we should start teaching the youths first aid in schools in the borough- hopefully as some kind of deterrent to how serious these injuries can be!
I’m sorry this happened on your doorstep and for the problems you are facing - I hope that something is done soon to add some extra security for you.

Did you not think to alert the police? It may have not resulted in another stabbing

With hindsight that’s an easy suggestion, and I’m sure @Mac_SE23 feels ill of the situation now.

But when it’s just a suspicion, feeling or a hunch? If you phone 999 they will say it’s a non-emegency and say goodbye. If you phone 101 you’ll be on hold waiting for an operator who will log some details but probably do nothing else.

Or you could get involved yourself and step in, say something to the kids and make yourself a target.

I wish we lived in a society where there were better options available.

Wow, Nadia, thanks, nothing like making someone feel guilty

OK, two things to that: firstly, thanks @ForestHull but I don’t feel ill of the situation one bit, although I obviously feel for the boy who was attacked. What I walked away from was a threatening situation which looked as though it was going to kick off there and then, and by the sounds of it, it did. So unless there were police already on Church Vale, they would have been way too late to have prevented anything happening. Plus, I didn’t see anyone with weapons, just two groups albeit in a confrontational situation. So not sure 101 would have put that down as an immediate priority.

Secondly, having been violently mugged last year, my immediate gut reaction in seeing what was going on, was to get away PDQ.

There is a charity called Street Doctors that does exactly this. They send medic students in to youth groups to teach young people emergency first aid for these kinds of situations. Serves several purposes - teaches kids potentially life saving skills, helps them see the utter gravity and seriousness of carrying a knife, and provides confidence for medical students.

https://streetdoctors.org

Never call 101 in that type of situation. Always call 999 in an emergency. That would be graded as an emergency.

3 posts were split to a new topic: Feedback on Residential Block on Church Vale to be submitted by 23rd November