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thisisbristol
20:31 - 25 August 2005

A 10-month-old girl has become one of Britain's youngest ever victims of yob culture.

Sarah Ali was left battered and bruised by a teenager who tried to snatch her from her pushchair.

When he failed to free her straps he launched an attack that left her mother fearing for her life.

Sarah was punched repeatedly in the stomach and then in the face, leaving her cut and bruised.

The incident in Middlesbrough shocked police who have launched an urgent hunt for the attacker, aged between 14 and 16, and who may have been under the influence of drink or drugs.

The girl, who was with her mother Yasmin, 28, was just 20 yards from her home in Somerset Street when the attacker struck. They had been visiting Mrs Ali's mother-in-law in the same street.

Mrs Ali, a mother-of-two, tried to wheel her daughter out of the way when the teenager came staggering down the street towards her.

But he lurched at the pushchair, grabbing Sarah and trying to drag her free of the buckled straps holding her in place.

Mrs Ali said she believed the thug was going or snatch her daughter, or even worse kill her.

The attacker was white, aged 14- 16, of thin build, had slight stubble and was wearing a grey tracksuit with white stripes down the sleeves.

The attack happened at 9pm on Wednesday night on Borough Road in Middlesbrough at its junction with Somerset Street.

That's so so so terrible! A few streets from me a few years ago a baby girl was stabbed in her pram by a man just released from a psychiatric hospital. She was seriously ill but thank God she survived. It's enough to make you lose your faith in the world

What the hell did he try and grab the bairn for?? Crazy, there's always something happening everyday like this. What the hell is this world coming to

its absolutly disgusting. how can someone assult an innocent child?

The poor little thing must have been terrified. Thank God she'll be too young to remember it but her mother will be traumatised for life

I am astonished that anyone could be so cruel....the poor family

If it's drugs it could easily happen I'm sure.

Thankfully the paras are going to take on the drug lords, hopefully they'll destroy all the sources. It's no good just arresting the drug dealers over here, absolutely pointless, it's the source they need to destroy. It's just like space invaders, when the mothership keeps on letting out the "invaders" you'll be there forever, but destroy the mothership and problem solved. If they destroy the source alltogether, then that will hopefully be the end of it.

And yet it will continue. It's disgusting and we need to put a stop to things like this. No idea how like but I tried to tell people a few weeks ago that more and more youths are being involved in attacks for no reason. It's disgraceful and it won't stop until we start dishing out proper punishments to them!

It needs to be tackled on more than one front. I mentioned to my (Turkish) ex that I was surprised at how respectful and well-behaved the kids were. He looked surprised and just shrugged and said simply 'They get more attention from their parents'.

I agree with him to a point I remember seeing a teenage girl shout to a crying toddler something that sounded like 'Fecking hurry up you little currant!' as she gazed around with a bored expression. If you want to raise a child with good moral values you have to take an interest in it. One friend of mine married young and had 5 children in quick succession before being widowed in an accident when the youngest was a baby. All of her children are law-abiding lovely kids but she had to work at it. She didn't rely on the law or society to raise her children - she worked hard to raise them herself.

The parents should take more of an active role in raising their kids properly and the law should not tolerate misbehaviour. Sounds simple but I can't see it happening in my lifetime

I remember years ago, when i was at college i was petfrified of the coppers, even though i was a sod at school. But now they don't seem to be bothered about them, they just take the mick out of them. And then you get the people who say that kids shouldn't have this done to them and that done to them. My sister was dead against smacking when her kids were first born, i didn't agree with this, but her choice. But as time went on, she knew that she had made the wrong decision, and had to start smacking them. I just think there's too much of telling people what to do, too many people thinking they know best when actually, they know p**s all. I think there was a lot more respect when i was at school, compared with now. You see under 16's drinking, god, if i had been drinking my parents would have killed me. It just seems like the parents of today don't give a s**t about what their kids are doing. Surely they can tell by the way they are walking in the house, or the way they are talking that they are drunk or high.

How do you know the parents aren't drunk or high or out somewhere else when the kids walk into the house? The parents don't give a poo! When I was a kid my friends and I climbed over the wall into an orchard and picked some apples. My dad caught us coming home with a bag of apples and he said 'have you been scrumping' (nicking apples from tree's) I broke out into a cold-sweat but he just laughed. I was scared of him tho, I paid attention to what I was allowed to do and what I wasn't. 'Scrumping' got a laugh (I think he saw it as a childhood rite of passage or something) but if I'd stolen from a shop or if I'd sprayed graffitti or something he'd have killed me! As for answering back to an adult or drinking, smoking, bad language...

It's getting younger and younger though. I was walking near my house the other evening and stood outside the corner shop near next door but one to my house was a lad I knew. He's 13 at had a can of beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other hand with all his chavvy little mates around him.

It's getting out of control, they've no respect at all for anyone!

Yeah, nicking apples from tree's is just the usual kids stuff anyway. Nah, i'm talking about serious stuff like drinking alcohol, doing drugs, swearing at other adults, nicking cars or being in a car at high speed. All of this stuff i would have got killed for if i had done. I smoked when i was at school, but this is just again, kids stuff, they all do that really. And then when you get much older, most of them will have quit the habit. I suppose most of us done the usual kids stuff at school, but the kids now go too far with things, and to make matters worse, the kids parents probably don't even care.

Agreed.