My thoughts are with the family of Dean Mayley, I cannot imagine what they must be going through at this moment. As though they haven't enough to deal with I have seen comments online suggesting that they must regret allowing him to travel about on his own. All of us, even the most vulnerable among us, should feel safe when we are away from home. I don't think it will help the police investigation to mention particular schools, as someone else pointed out there are several of them in the area and this incident took place at a time when the majority of pupils would have already left for home. Examining the available CCTV footage from shops in Greenford Broadway was probably a priority for the police but in the end it will be DNA and the Mark I Eyeball that counts, as well as information from those who know the people responsible for this. Someone's conscience may trouble them enough to make them come forward. However terrible this crime I hope it will not lead to the same kind of response in the press to that which followed the death of Mrs Paula Castle in 2012, when people with nothing better to do left everyone outside Greenford under the impression that it is Dodge City. Comments about the alleged dangerousness of Greenford have been made on the local Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Greenford-Middlesex) since the most recent incident, largely by people who now live somewhere else. I'm so pleased they've found somewhere new to moan about and hope they stay there. The person who set up the Facebook page runs it with the best of intentions and deserves better for his admirable efforts. Greenford is certainly a burglary hot spot and I feel great sympathy for the person commenting on this thread who has been a victim of it several times over. Targeted CCTV would certainly help identify those responsible in his case and could even put them off altogether. I would like to see an end to the replacement of low hedges and walls at the front of properties with higher ones, an increasingly common practice which should certainly attract the attention of the local planning department and police as it denies neighbours a clear view of anyone trying to break in through the front door. You can hardly complain about this happening if your main entrance is screened off by the cars you've parked on the half acre of concrete that used to be your front garden, or by the fancy railings designed to give you privacy. The "compound culture" which this encourages, where residents park right next to their front door, never walking along their own street or talking to their neigbours, helps to create the kind of mindset that leaves people like Dean Mayley vulnerable. If, unlike Dean, your world stops at your boundary wall or the door of your car you may lose the habit of caring about what is happening to those around you, the most important element of a sense of community, and there will always be someone ready to take advantage of that.
Albertina McNeill ● 4372d