Detective 'losing faith' in justice

The youths had little respect for the police

A Scotland Yard detective who was targeted by young criminals four times within 90 minutes has said he is losing heart with the fight against crime.

John Cullen, 35, had his car broken into and his bicycle stolen before being beaten up and his moped vandalised.

The detective, who has been in the force for 16 years, believes a "multi-agency" approach needs to be adopted to combat youth offending.

His comments coincide with the Tories announcing a new tougher approach to tackling youth crime.

I still cling to the hope that the fight against crime can be won, but alas I am fast losing heart

John Cullen, Scotland Yard detective

The series of incidents took place outside Mr Cullen's home in Fulham, south-west London.

In a letter to the Daily Telegraph, Mr Cullen, who works for the Metropolitan Police's Specialist Crime Branch, said the crime spree started when he was met by his 27-year-old wife Emma outside their home.

She told him the CD player and 10 CDs had been taken from their VW Golf, which was parked outside.

He said: "I asked my wife if she had called the police and her reply was, `What's the point?'.

Confrontation

Mr Cullen's bike was stolen from outside his house as he was phoning police to report the theft from his car.

Shortly afterwards he took his moped and drove around the neighbourhood to try to find the person responsible for stealing his bike.

He saw a youth riding his bike, confronted him and tried to arrest him.

At this point he was attacked from behind by two others.

One stamped on his chest and head and then both youngsters kicked him in the face and body.

'Little respect'

He managed to fight off his attackers but was immediately approached by the youth who had stolen his bike.

Mr Cullen moved out of his way as he thought a knife was being pulled on him.

He then watched as the teenager kicked the wing mirror of his moped before running off with the other two youths.

Mr Cullen, who spent several hours having his injuries examined at a police station, told the newspaper it was "frightening" that his attackers had little respect both for people and the police.

He wrote: "I don't have any answers to all this, but a multi-agency approach is surely urgently needed to tackle this sort of youth offending to protect the public - including me."