'I wasn't going to be a victim anymore'

What to do when neighbours make your life a misery? Here, Carol Gallivan, of Manchester, tells how she risked retribution to collect evidence against those who blighted her community. Her story features in the BBC One series, Britain's Streets of Crime.

I decided that if I was going to be victimised, I may as well be victimised for doing the right thing Carol Gallivan

I moved into Partington estate in Manchester with my four children - two girls aged eight and 15, and two boys aged 10 and 12 - in November 2001. I had lived in the area before, and so had no reason to think it would be a mistake.

Within days, I realised just how little I knew the area. Daily life was punctuated by gangs of youths hanging around outside the shops at the rear of our house.

When they started fighting each other, we'd get bottles and other missiles thrown at the walls and windows of our house. But loitering and thrown bottles soon became the least of our problems.

Within the first month, I had my car stolen twice. It was recovered by the police but the feeling of helplessness that overcame me because I couldn't protect my property, in my own driveway, cannot be described.

The catalogue of acts just grew and grew. It really did feel as if, for some reason, my family was being targeted.

We had windows broken, the car door was prised open and damaged. We were burgled four times: once we were out of the property; once when just my sons were home, and two youths pushed their way past them and helped themselves to our stuff; and on two occasions when I was at home. Workmen had just left for a moment to collect some tools and youths entered the property while I was upstairs. They took my purse and some electrical goods.

Hands tied

I always informed the police. They told me that without really hard evidence they couldn't prosecute, and I had to remember that my children and I still had to walk the streets of Partington. It seemed it didn't matter what I did, these youths would win.

Until the day my son's mobile phone was stolen from him, and he and I chased the culprit and recovered it. The youth in question threatened all sorts of retribution. I listened to him and realised that he wasn't threatening anything that they hadn't already done to us.

That was when I decided that if I was going to be victimised, I may as well be victimised for doing something - the right thing, the one thing I had always tried to teach my children.

If nobody ever stood up to the youths, how on earth could we complain when nothing was done?

Caught on camera

That was when I contacted the Housing Association, who put me in touch with their nuisance team, a team who became a lifeline when the going got tough, a team who loaned me the equipment to make a video which eventually proved to the police and other agencies that the problems were there and something had to be done about them.

Filming offenders is a tactic tried elsewhere with some success

It was a joint effort. I put in many hours collecting information, keeping CCTV cameras going front and back of the property and shooting a video as the youths ran riot outside.

The Housing Association put in many hours of legal work - and with the help of this team, my children and I today live in a different part of Partington in peace.

Eventually, we got somewhere. I sat in court and watched as a judge handed down anti-social behaviour orders against some of the youths who had made our lives a misery.

They did threaten retribution. But this they had done before and I still fought. If I had to do it all again tomorrow, then I would. If people don't stand up to these youths, we won't be able to walk our streets. We need to be able to live our lives; it is our world too, not just theirs.

The final programme in the series, Britain's Streets of Crime, will be broadcast in the UK on BBC One at 1015 GMT on Friday 14 November.