He was set upon when he stood up to a 30-strong gang of hooded teenagers outside the Albany Theatre in Deptford. Speaking about the attack for the first time, Mr Somerville said: "We were heading towards our van when this gang of hooded young boys appeared, some of them on bikes. They started pushing my group and waving lit fireworks in their faces. When I saw a knife being pulled out, I got between the gang and my young people. There's no way I wanted to be taking away young people in a body bag and it was instinctive to defend them.