Staffordshire schoolboy Aidan Cowie, 15, was allegedly attacked by two men after he and a friend played a prank by knocking on the door of a house before running away
A teenager has was allegedly beaten with a plank of wood and left in the A&E after a prank-gone-wrong.
Staffordshire schoolboy Aidan Cowie, aged 15, was said to have been violently attacked by two men in Penkridge on the evening of Thursday, March 26 after he and a friend knocked the door of a house before running away.
Shortly after the prank, a car pulled up alongside the schoolboys on a nearby road and a man got out wielding either a baseball bat or a wooden plank, said Aidan’s father, Kyle. He added that the man chased after the boys.
Kyle explained: “Aidan went one way, his mate went the other way. The lad followed Aidan.”
“He looked behind him, then saw the bloke was getting closer, so he tried to sprint more, but then got smashed over the back of the head with this piece of wood.”
“He fell to the floor, tried to get back up, but the lad grabbed him, threw him back to the floor, jumped on top of him and started hitting him, sitting on top of him.”
Kyle said that the man was believed to have been in his 20s.
He said that the man then picked Aidan up and dragged him towards the house where the boys had played knock-and-run.
“As he was dragging him then, the other bloke, who was in his 50s, came over. He went to punch Aidan and missed and fell to the floor himself.”
“He then got back up and then picked up the piece of wood and started hitting Aidan with the piece of wood on his leg, saying, you’re never going to walk again.”
Kyle said that his son began shouting for help which attracted people from a nearby house.
A man and woman asked what was happening and the older attacker allegedly said the boys had been trying to burgle his house, said Kyle.
Kyle said that another couple also asked what was happening, which gave Aidan the opportunity to escape.
“Luckily, the bloke had got him by his hood, so Aidan managed to pull away and escape while he was distracted and climbed through a little hole in the fence and sprinted for his life,” said Kyle. “The neighbours obviously called the police, so they came straight out.”
Kyle said he first heard about the attack when he returned from football training and saw a series of missed calls from his eldest son, Cameron, 18. Cameron was attacked in Penkridge four years ago by a baseball-bat-wielding gang in an unrelated matter.
“When he answered, he went, ‘You need to get straight to A&E, Aidan’s been beaten up badly’,” said Kyle.
Aidan had escaped serious injury. He suffered a lump on the back of his head, rib pain and scratches all over his body.
Since the incident, Kyle said he discovered other kids had previously played knock-and-run on that address, although he said it was Aidan’s first time doing it.
Kyle praised the initial response of Staffordshire Police, saying officers said there would be arrests. He said that since then, the police force has been slow to provide him updates or even a crime reference number.
“The biggest concern is I had no updates for two and a half weeks,” said Kyle. “And my son’s obviously asking daily what’s happening. Also, I wasn’t given a crime number. I’ve got no crime reference number still.”
A spokesperson for Staffordshire Police said: “We were called at 8.45pm on Thursday 26 March to Grange Avenue, Penkridge, following reports a teenage boy was assaulted.”
“Following some anti-social behaviour on the street, two men pulled up near to the boy and one of the men hit him with a stick. The victim went to hospital for treatment.”
“Officers have carried out enquiries and two men are due to be interviewed about the incident.”
