A frightening stand-off escalated after he tried to take their photo
A generic view of the Sea Walls area of the Downs in Bristol(Image: Google Maps)
A man has described a terrifying encounter on the Downs which saw him threatened, chased and attacked by two masked yobs on e-motorbikes. He said he became involved in a frightening stand-off with the pair, who kicked and punched his car and pursued him for around two miles into the roads of north Bristol.
The incident is the latest report of anti-social behaviour involving the use of high-powered scrambler-type e-motorbikes being ridden on the Downs and police have urged anyone who sees a crime in progress to call 999 while it is ongoing. The man involved in the latest incident has chosen not to be named, but is a 62-year-old local resident who is an active member of the Protect the Downs campaign.
The incident, which is not thought to be connected to the issue of van-dwellers on the Downs, started at around 10.20am last Thursday, July 24. The man was returning to his car parked on the Downs to go home when he was passed at high speed by two young men wearing masks and riding e-motorbikes, as they crossed the grass from Stoke Road towards the Sea Walls.
“I decided, actually stupidly with hindsight, to drive down towards Sea Walls to see if I could see where they were,” he said. “They were leaning up against the Sea Wall wall, bikes beside them. Both were wearing balaclavas to hide their faces.”
With local residents claiming the Downs are becoming ‘increasingly lawless’ – not just in connection with the number of caravans and van dwellers living there – Protect the Downs have urged local residents to gather evidence of anti-social behaviour. So the man said he parked his car and started trying to take photos, but was quickly spotted.
“Of course they clocked me – which was partly the point,” he said. “The idea was to let them know that they’d been seen. They gestured over to me and circled their faces, saying ‘you can’t identify us’, then started giving me the finger and shouting abuse.
“I shouted some words back, don’t ask me exactly what but something along the lines of ‘we’re watching you’, but also thought ‘right it’s time to go’. I started up the car but clearly they didn’t like what had been said to them and they both immediately ran to their bikes, fired them up and began riding them straight towards me,” he added.
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He said what then followed was a violent cat-and-mouse chase across the Downs, which saw the fast e-motorbike riders riding alongside the car and kicking the wing mirrors. “I then started driving quite quickly up Circular Road towards Ivywell, at which point I had one of them getting right alongside me, kicking my passenger side mirror, breaking it,” said the man.
“At this point I started speeding up. One was then right beside my passenger side and the other one trying to get in front of me. This forced me to drive onto Durdham Down, onto the grass, with them chasing me,” he added.
‘Tried to break glass with his fist’
“Those bikes are fast – very fast. I had one riding straight in front of me forcing me to stop, whilst the other one came up behind me, with the first guy then running to my car to try and open the door whilst also trying to break the glass with his fist.
“At this point I’m reversing at speed with the other one behind me nearly getting knocked off his bike – but having the sense to get out of the way. There then began a game of what others, and there were other cars around on the road, must have thought was chicken, with the two thugs in front of me, beside me, behind me, whilst I’m driving around like a lunatic thinking that I’m going to have to knock one of them off their bikes to get away safely.
“There was not a cat in hell’s chance of me stopping – though at one point my engine did cut out – but frankly, given that I was at risk of most likely serious physical harm, their safety was at the bottom of my list. All of this must have been being witnessed. I’ve no idea what those witnesses must have been thinking they were watching,” he added.
The ‘Show of Support’ walk on the Downs(Image: Tom Wren / SWNS)
The driver said he then got back onto Circular Road and turned off away from the Downs and into Stoke Bishop and was followed at speed all the way to Druid Hill. The man described how one of the riders stopped by a skip – he thought to reach in and grab something to use as a weapon – before eventually he managed to lose them on Reedley Road, after what was a two-mile chase around the Downs and Stoke Bishop.
At that point he reported it to the police’s non-emergency 101 system, and was later told that, because the two e-motorbike riders were masked there was ‘no proportionate way to identify the offender so it will be filed with no further action pending further information’.
Avon and Somerset police did say that the local neighbourhood policing team are already aware of the ongoing issues on the Downs with e-motorbike riders on the grass.