Selina Scott attacked by robbers in West End

Telegraph

6 hours ago

Selina Scott, the veteran newsreader, has revealed she was attacked and robbed in broad daylight in central London last week.
Ms Scott, 74, said her purse was stolen by a gang of 'seven or eight men and women of East Asian origin' who surrounded her outside Waterstones bookshop in Piccadilly.
Her bank cards, driving licence and cash were taken and she was left with bruising behind her knee, as well as a 'mental scar', following the theft on Tuesday afternoon.
She criticised the lack of a police presence in the West End after being unable to find an officer afterwards, and blamed Sir Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, for overseeing the closure of a police station in the area.
Ms Scott, one of the most famous faces on television in the 1980s, was the only female newsreader on ITN's News at 10 before becoming one of the founding anchors of BBC's Breakfast Time in 1983. Following a 30-year broadcasting career, she now runs a farm in North Yorkshire.
She had travelled to London on Tuesday to visit the Royal Academy of Arts and was stepping out of Waterstones when she was targeted in a 'co-ordinated assault' near a busy bus stop.
Ms Scott said the gang quickly surrounded her.
'A casually dressed group of seven or eight men and women of East Asian origin who had been walking in front of me, dressed in expensive sportswear, had turned and hemmed me in,' she wrote in an article for The Mail on Sunday.
She managed to hold onto the bag but her purse was stolen from inside it. She said the gang then walked off 'laughing'.
'I looked for a police officer but saw none'
Ms Scott said: 'I resolved to find a police officer, but despite walking up and down some of London's busiest central areas – down Jermyn Street, along Piccadilly and over to Leicester Square – I saw none.
'West End Central police station, which would have been a 10-minute walk away, had closed permanently in 2021 after being sold to developers for a reported £50 million...
'The first priority of the Mayor of London should be to protect the public from lawlessness and keep police stations open in crime hotspots. Sir Sadiq Khan has instead overseen their wholesale closure.'
She added: 'I am now only too relieved it wasn't a knife they used.'
Police officers arranged to visit Ms Scott the following day. However, they then called her in the morning to say 'they couldn't find an available police car' and would instead speak to her over the phone, Ms Scott said.
She told them she no longer wished to pursue the matter and the investigation was closed.