http://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/content/towerhamlets/advertiser/news/s=
tory.aspx?brand=3Delaonline&category=3Dnews&tBrand=3Dnorthlondon24&tCategory=
=3Dnewsela&itemid=3DWeED09%20May%202008%2013%3A36%3A42%3A987
A SECOND priest has been beaten up in his own churchyard in the space
of just eight weeks in London=92s East End =97 this time over an argument
about a football.
The Rector of St Matthew=92s in Bethnal Green, The Rev Kevin Scully, was
attacked on Tuesday afternoon by three drunken youths who had returned
to take their revenge for a row three days before.
He had taken their ball last Saturday after he saw them using a cross
on the church as a basketball hoop.
He has been taunted with religious and racist abuse in the past, but
believes the beating was more alcohol-fuelled than anything more
sinister.
The attack follows the vicious assault on Canon Michael Ainsworth at
St George-in-the-East church in Shadwell in March.
But although that attack was treated as a =91faith hate=92 crime, police
consider the latest incident as simple assault.
Fr Scully, 45, who was left with two black eyes, cuts and bruises,
told the Advertiser: =93I=92m still a bit shaken up.
=93It came out of an incident where some teenagers were using the front
of the church as a basketball hoop.
=93I took their ball and told them to leave=97but they came back on
Tuesday, drunk, to demand their ball back and attacked me.=94
He recalled: =93One of them was instigating the violence.
=93I thought the other two were going to stop it, but in the end they
joined in.
=93Even a passer-by who saw what was going on and tried to intervene got
a kicking too.
=93I was punched twice in the face, hard, hit again, and kicked from
behind.
=93I crouched down to ward off the blows before running to the Rectory
and calling police.=94
Fr Scully added: =93My biggest concern was getting the door locked as I
thought they might follow me inside.
=93But they ran off and I=92ve not seen them round here since.=94
He branded them =93drunken yobs=94 and said the area suffered anti-social
and criminal behaviour.
Mr Scully, however, insists it was not a =91policing=92 problem, but a
=91community=92 problem.
=93These are someone=92s sons, someone=92s brothers,=94 he said. =93These
pe=
ople
are known in the community.=94
=93There is a certain racial and religious element to this,=94 adds.
=93I have been and was taunted religiously =97 and that is a worrying
aspect of it.
=93But I would not make that a =91flag of convenience.=92
=93These are drunken yobs and that is the shame of it.
=93They could probably have a very bright future ahead of them if they
only did something about it.=94
Police are investigating the assault and say they are looking for
three Asian youths, all aged about 16.
The attack has also brought condemnation from Tower Hamlets Council.
The authority=92s community cohesion spokesman, Cllr Ohid Ahmed, said:
=93The idiots who carried out this attack have let their community down
as well as themselves and their families.
=93We will continue to work with the people of Tower Hamlets to stamp
out such mindless acts and to encourage tolerance, understanding and
co-operation among everyone=97regardless of faith beliefs.=94
The Advertiser launched a campaign backed by Tower Hamlets council to
improve security in the East End=92s churchyards, following the March
attack on Canon Ainsworth at St George=92s in Shadwell.
----------------------------
Yep, a community problem. Once you let arselifters into your
community, trouble follows.
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