An east London man who was attacked by masked muggers as he rode his bike home on a towpath alongside the River Lee says the route is becoming a no-go zone for cyclists.
The incident happened close to Daubeney Road, Hackney on the evening of Tuesday 3 January as Andy Biddle, aged 34, was riding home to Walthamstow, reports the London Evening Standard.
Mr Biddle was assaulted by two masked men, one of whom punched him in the face. He sustained a black eye, and will require two months of treatment on a bruised retina and scratched cornea.
The muggers stole £40 cash and also made contactless payments totalling £200 on his debit card before he managed to cancel it.
According to the Standard, the Metropolitan Police are investigating three similar incidents that took place in the area in the week before Christmas, although it is unclear whether any of the victims of those attacks was a cyclist. No arrests have been made.
Mr Biddle told the newspaper: “It was my first day at my new job. When I got to Hackney Marshes I noticed a moped, which I thought was kids messing around.
“I cycled off the path to let them past and they slowed down. I started to feel frightened. I don’t know why but I thought if I cycled into the park I would be safer but, obviously, it’s darker and when I got into the park I slipped on my bike and lost my momentum.
“That was when I looked over my shoulder and saw the two guys walking towards me. They shouted, ‘Give me your stuff,’ and then I don’t remember how it happened but I was suddenly on the floor and was aware I had been hit.
“One of them said, ‘Do you want me to hit you again or are you going to do what we say?’ So I gave them my wallet with cards and money in it.
“When they turned around to go they said, ‘You had better not call the police — we know where you live.’”
He continued: “I went to work the next day but ended up breaking down in front of my new colleagues so they sent me to hospital.
"The day after I didn’t leave the house, even to go to the pharmacy in the daytime — I was too shaken up and teary.
"The whole thing was really scary, especially when you are down in the mud staring up at guys wearing masks.”
Mr Biddle that when he cycles now, he uses a different route, and said that action is needed to make people feel safer when riding there.
“It needs to be sorted,” he said. “It is a cycle path but it is too dangerous to use. I now go the long way to work and I don’t cycle as much and I know people who used to use it but are now too scared.”
The incident happened a few hundred yards south of where police were contacted by several cyclists in February last year following attempted bike-jackings by a group of youths who were wearing balaclavas.
Elsewhere on the capital’s waterways system, police last March linked six attacks on cyclists on the Paddington Branch of the Grand Union Canal to members of the same gang.
Two of the incidents resulted in the riders being pushed into the water on the same evening. One of the victims, Peter Bettell, warned at the time that parts of the towpath were becoming “no-go areas.”
Despite the press coverage that episodes such as those attract, cyclists still take to London's towpaths in big numbers - testament to the fact that many feel safer riding there than they do on the road.
The Canal & River Trust recently canvassed the views of cyclists who use towpaths in London through a survey, including asking questions related to safety and whether they had ever been the victim of an attack.
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9 comments
There's a warning in the route map for the Dunwich Dynamo for that area of Hackney - don't cycle alone - as riders have had their bikes stolen there. Been going on for years.
they give guys wearing masks a bad name!
Pedestrians need to put their house in order.
They were just off-bike cyclists.
It’s really upsetting for us to hear about this incident and we obviously wish Andy all the best.
Towpaths are more popular than ever, and in general safer, so thankfully - from what we can tell - things like this are quite rare. That being said, We’d encourage anyone who experiences serious anti-social behaviour like this to report it to the police immediately. Our fear is that people do not always do this. Reporting incidents can influence how the police co-ordinate their resources for some green spaces like parks and towpaths so it’s important that reports are made and the police get a true picture.
In the meantime we’ll doing all we can to make towpaths great spaces for everyone to use and we will do whatever we can to work with the police as part of this.
Dick Vincent
National Towpath Ranger / Canal & River Trust
P: 0207 517 5577 / M: 0789 9837612 / E: dick.vincent [at] canalrivertrust.org.uk / T:@TowpathRanger
I'd probably have chosen different words to describe this incident...
Agree that reporting to police is really important though.
Best wishes to Andy Biddle on making a full recovery and hope the psychological side of it doesn't continue to trouble him.
Ok own up - who put 'Muggers' in the ideas box for slowing cyclists in that Canal & River Trust survey?
I've had teens lazily try and push me in a canal but thankfully no full effort mugging attempts cycling on Edinburgh canals.
“One of them said, ‘Do you want me to hit you again or are you going to do what we say?’'
Were they cabinet ministers?
Let's hope the Stasi do as good a job of catching these muggers as they do of catching the perpetrators of hate crime.