Police respond after being labelled ‘worse than useless’ by family who fled Sheffield

The family, who were too scared to be identified in case of further reprisals, fled the city in fear following the latest attack on their property in the early hours of Sunday morning. Both of their cars have been “destroyed” after paint stripper was poured over them and the windows were shattered.

The front window of their house on Montrose Road was also smashed in the latest attack. The dad, who works as a teacher, estimated the total cost of the ordeal to be about £20,000.

To date, no one has been arrested.

Sergeant James Marshall from the Sheffield South West Neighbourhood Team said: “We are aware of these incidents and investigations are underway, led by local neighbourhood officers in the Montrose Road area.

“I can absolutely understand the distress that these incidents have caused the victim and his family and I would like to reassure him that our enquiries are ongoing to identify those responsible.”

The dad, who has two five-year-old children and six-year-old, said the police’s response has been “abject and pitiful” and officers were ‘uninterested’ because his CCTV footage did not clearly identify the culprits. He claimed one officer was checking social media on her phone while at the scene on Sunday.

The children have been left “terrified”, their dad said. The family do not plan to return to Sheffield and the children may temporarily be taken out of school.

Sergeant Marshall added: “We have already reviewed CCTV of previous incidents, but unfortunately this has not lead to the identification of the offenders at this time. I would urge anyone in the area to please review their own CCTV cameras and send us any footage which may be useful to our investigation.

“The investigation is now being led by a dedicated officer from the victim's local neighbourhood team, who will be reviewing all information received so far.”

Anyone with information that may assist police enquiries should call 101 quoting crime reference number 14/136106/20.