Gang named and shamed

In a small, run-down corner of north-west London, fear has disappeared - seemingly overnight.

Vince Cunningham's wife is no longer afraid to step out of her front door after dark, and the old woman in the flat round the corner does not have to be escorted to her front door when the gangs are about.

No one deals drugs in the car park of the flats where people used to live in terror; no one mugs the residents or urinates on their doorsteps.

This sudden and extraordinary change is the result of a unique experiment in Neasden in which seven local males, aged between 15 and 27, were named and shamed as belonging to a gang - the so-called Press Road Crew - which has been terrorising the neighbourhood.

Police say the gang regularly carried knives and drugs and have been convicted of more than 100 offences between them.

But now the Press Road Crew have been banned from the streets in the Chalkhill area in the first mass Anti-Social Behaviour Order (Asbo) in London. The order covers the largest area of any Asbo so far issued in Britain.

To make sure the gang members do not dare venture into the streets where until recently they caused such havoc, a leaflet has been delivered to local homes and firms showing their photographs and detailing the areas from which they have been excluded.

The results have been dramatic. One local said: "They were absolutely terrorising the area. I am just glad they were removed peacefully."

However, serious doubts have been raised about whether such banning orders do any good in the long run. Professor Tim Newburn, a criminologist based at the London School of Economics said: "There may be a respite, but the likelihood is that it is temporary rather than a solution."

There seems little doubt, though, that the residents whose lives were being made a misery are delighted.

One father of four, an IT consultant who has lived on Press Road for 18 years, said: "If this thing can stop them, then it's the right thing to do. The language and shouting that used to come out of their mouths was terrible. They would throw stones at people. It was awful."

Almost all the residents would speak only on condition of anonymity, a legacy of the fear the gang engendered. One elderly woman who lives alone in Press Road said: "We have suffered but it's much quieter now. They used to break windows and write graffiti. They used to spit all over my front step. It was disgusting. I had to clean it up in the morning. It would make me sick."

Cab driver Vince Cunningham, 67, was one of the few people to talk openly about the terror the gang inflicted at Brill House, the dilapidated block where he lives next to Neasden Lane. "The old lady who lives on the corner, we used to walk her in because she was frightened," he said. "My wife was scared to take the rubbish out at night.

"You noticed them trafficking in drugs - and you are fully aware of the shootings and stabbings which accompany that."

But it appears that the climate of fear the gang instilled, rather than their criminal activities, caused the biggest problem. Bobby Thomas, the Brent councillor in charge of housing said: "They would intimidate you. Even if they didn't do anything, their presence and attitude was far worse than if they had committed a crime and gone away."

The Asbo was introduced in 1999 in what was hailed as a Government "zero tolerance" policy.

Mr Thomas said the move by Brent council and local police to apply for them in the case of the Press Road Crew was meant to show the gang their behaviour would no longer be tolerated.

Brent Police say crime in the exclusion zone has fallen by 25 per cent since interim orders were served on the gang in April. But the IT consultant in Press Road said the mothers of three of the gang went door-to-door recently, asking residents to sign a petition in their support.

The families are considering a legal challenge under the Human Rights Act, claiming their privacy and family life has been infringed.

"It was pretty intimidating with them standing at the door. You don't really have any choice but to sign."

Professor Newburn questioned whether an Asbo addresses the underlying problem. "It's quite clearly important to respond to antisocial behaviour and to be seen to respond to it. There is no doubt people who are on the receiving end of it wish something to be done about it. But it is somewhat misleading to allow them to believe that a simple punitive response is going to be their salvation.

"Asbos are perceived as punishment. But I'm not sure punishment is the solution. We need to think very carefully about what impels them to behave in these ways, and to intervene accordingly. Crucially, it needs to have some fairly intensive educational element."