Daily Mail
February 24, 2014
A father was stabbed to death with an axe following a row with a gang of teenagers outside his home, reports today suggest.
Paul Thrower, 46, was attacked by a gang who were allegedly smoking drugs and drinking alcohol outside a block of flats in St Dunstan’s Close, Hayes, west London.
After Mr Thrower confronted the group, one – who was reportedly holding an axe – attacked him.
The group of five were then seen running from the scene shortly after the ‘blazing row’, neighbours said today.
The handyman died in hospital shortly before 11.30 on Thursday evening.
A 16-year-old youth has been arrested and is in custody in a West London police station.
Yesterday, Mr Thrower’s brother described what happened between his sibling and the gang.
Speaking with The Sun, Darren Thrower said: ‘He chased them upstairs. They were behind a closed door and my brother was trying to get through. Then his girlfriend said “They’ve got a knife. Come away Paul.” As my brother turned away the axe came down and got him in the back.’
One neighbour, who did not want to give her name, said: ‘I saw Paul getting CPR just outside the flat. It was dark but I could see him getting chest compressions.
‘Ambulance crews and police had been in the flat for a while before that, so I knew it didn’t look good. It was awful to see, he was a good man, he didn’t deserve that.
‘I think his son Luke was coming down to visit him at the weekend. It’s so sad.
‘There can be as many a 30 youths hanging around the flats on a night time. They just hang around smoking and drinking. There used to be a lot of drug deals going on around and there was a curfew, but they just ignore it.’
One man, who didn’t want to be named, said drugs were ‘rife’ on the estate.
He said: ‘There are so many drugs down there it’s rife. Sooner or later someone is going to take the law into their own hands and do something about the problem. The police don’t do anything about it.
‘But because they are so young there is not a lot they can do unless they catch them with something. There is a dispersal order to stop them gathering, but it doesn’t seem to work.’
Another neighbour, Ashmat Nasrat, 25, said the gangs are not from the estate.
He said: ‘They don’t even live here most of them. They just hang around outside the shops. This block and St Dunstans are the only ones they can get into so they swarm on us. Someone was arrested with a knife not long ago.’