Gangs home attack nightmare for Bootle pensioner

Feb 4 2010 by Tom Duffy, Bootle Times

George Nielson

A BOOTLE man has blamed a 'mafia of families with a grudge’ for the intimidation campaign that has torn his family apart.

George and Virginia Nielson had been in their new home on William Henry Street for a matter of days before their front door was kicked in.

The gangs of hooded youths, who began to circle their home on a nightly basis, soon turned their attention to the couple's two cars, throwing bricks through windscreens, dancing on bonnets and firing air-guns at the vehicles.

The pattern continued unabated for years, and during a long hot summer of trouble in 2008 Virginia packed her bags to start a new life in north Wales.

The broken woman, who had campaigned to save St Winifred's School on Merton Road, vowed never to return to Bootle due to the gangs.

Today George, 61, who worked as a crane driver on Seaforth docks until an industrial accident forced him to retire, fights a seemingly endless battle with the yobs and hoodies on his estate.

And George – legal guardian to his two grandchildren – feels trapped in the home he shares with them as he cannot sell it.

George bought the house to provide the children with some security, and has now poured his life savings in to the doomed property.

The derelict block of flats next to his home is a magnet for groups of young men who sit on the roof smoking cannabis and amuse themselves by throwing slates down on to George's home.

Four years ago the family were forced to flee their home in the middle of the night when arsonists set fire to the flats for a prank.

And the Bootle man, who has a long history of heart trouble, claims the 'mafia' of families on the estate lay behind the campaign of intimidation.