'It's devastating': Council leader reacts after boy 'stabbed' in south Essex attack
A COUNCIL leader has described an alleged stabbing in Hawkwell as "absolutely devastating" and "completely out of the norm" for the area.
Danielle Belton, leader of Rochford Council, spoke to the Echo expressing sadness after a teenage boy was reportedly stabbed on Clements Hall Way on Friday evening, leading to two arrests.
Essex Police were called to the scene at around 6.50pm following reports that a group had been attacked by two suspects.
One victim sustained a leg injury and was taken to hospital for treatment.
According to reports, he was stabbed in the leg during the incident.
Two 17-year-old boys – one from London and one from Leigh – were arrested shortly afterwards on suspicion of grievous bodily harm and remain in custody.
"It's absolutely devastating for something to happen like this in our district, as it's completely out of the norm," Ms Belton said.
"And as I understand it, these were two boys from outside of the area. Obviously, my thoughts are with the young boy that was allegedly stabbed and with his family. And I hope he's okay and that he makes a swift recovery."
She praised the emergency services' response, adding:
"I'm very thankful to the emergency services for acting quickly and for arresting the two suspects. But yeah, I just, I urge anyone with information to come forward to the police. And I hope we don't see something like this again. It seems very worrying for our area and something that we're not used to."
Ms Belton said she was waiting for full details from police rather than speculating.
"As of now I only know as much as what the police have put out, I'll wait for the full details rather than speculate, but as we understand it, there was an alleged stabbing," she said.
"My main concern is for that of the young boy who has been assaulted, but will have to wait for the full details to come out from Essex police.
"And I'd like to again emphasize that this really it is unusual. It's not the norm around here, but one time is too many, and it shouldn't happen."
The council leader revealed she had recently met with the High Sheriff of Essex to discuss preventing knife crime, describing youth services as something she was "very passionate about".
"Only last week, I met with the High Sheriff of Essex and we were talking about incentives for youth and we actually were talking about ways to prevent knife crime in the area. So I mean, it's tragic that this has happened, but it is something that we are trying to tackle and we want to help educate these young people so that they don't carry knives in the first place.
"But it's a big piece of work. It's something that obviously there's more of an issue with in city centres, but we do not want that rolling out into our suburban areas, so we need to need to act swiftly to find the right services and the right thing to help our youngsters. to ensure others don't end up in a similar situation on either side of the knife, either as the victim or as the perpetrator."
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