Gang on rampage attack cafe workers before pensioner comes to their aid
Seventy five-year-old former navy officer David Ryland witnessed the attack and came to their rescue wielding his walking stick.
A ‘rampaging mob’ vandalised a cafe and attacked the owners – before a pensioner came to their aid.
A group of teenagers were heard chanting and shouting through Walsall town centre in broad daylight before turning up at Jack & Ada’s Cafe in St Paul’s Street, Walsall, where they flipped tables and attacked staff before smashing a nearby bus window.
West Midlands Police are investigating Saturday’s incident which saw cafe owner Paul Houlston, aged 60, pushed to the ground and kicked in the face while his son, Sam, 26, was also attacked.
Staff from a nearby shop along with 75-year-old former navy officer David Ryland, who served from 1963, witnessed the attack and came to their rescue.
He was doing some shopping with his partner, Judith Elmes, aged 75, when he saw the attack.
David Ryland, of Birchills, said: “We heard rabid screaming and shouting around the corner. There were about 10 of them causing injury and chaos in their wake.
“The wretches flipped tables and attacked people.
“It was total chaos and screaming. The staff came out and did their best but one man had his glasses smashed and his face bloodied.
"I am an ex-Navy officer and I was wielding my stick before I gave it to him to defend himself and gave one of the thugs a kick.
“I helped them as best as a pensioner with arthritis could.
“They had their fists out to everybody and they were totally feral.
“The attack was unfolding so viciously. We are under threat all the time, it is quite frightening. It is too dangerous for us.
“It lasted about 10 or 15 seconds but it seemed like an hour.
“I have seen a lot of action at sea and I was really upset for all the people that were injured and attacked by screaming feral youths.
“They made off towards the Sister Dora statue after police arrived with their sirens blaring which made them scarper.”
He added: “I have been a Walsall resident for 25 years and I do not feel safe here anymore.
“They shut down our police station and as usual there was no police on the beat walking around and no PCSO.”
Father and son, Paul and Sam, have owned the cafe for nearly four years and said the anti-social behaviour was getting worse.
Paul said: “I fell to the floor when after they started fighting and I got kicked in the face and back.
“They were a rampaging mob.
“Some women who worked nearby and an elderly gentleman helped us to fight them off. They did a good job because they soon left.
“My aunt was in the cafe at the time and watched as her nephew and great nephew were attacked. She was traumatised by the experience.”
He added: “We do not have a police station in the town anymore. It would be a deterrent to crime if we did.
“A lot of our customers are elderly people but it can be very intimidating to come to Walsall town centre.
“My facial injuries will heal but it is my equipment that is damaged.
“I have a condition which is narrowing of the arteries and have to go to the opticians to have a scan to check that I am fine.”
“Walsall is on the decline. We discussed moving the business but we enjoy being here because we are local people but antisocial behaviour has definitely got worse.
“ Park Street is a notorious problem area. I do not know how this will effect trade,” he added.
West Midlands Police are also investigating whether this incident is connected with a similar incident at the Oak Inn pub on Green Lane.
A police spokesman said: “Police were called to reports of disorder outside Jack and Ada’s Cafe in St Paul’s Street, Walsall, at around 12.30pm on Saturday, July 14.
“Two men, aged 60 and 26, were assaulted and suffered facial injuries.
“The window of a nearby bus was also damaged.”
Anyone with information is asked to call police on 101, quoting crime reference number 20WS/158709C/18.
