Fears are mounting over a wave of young girl gangs wreaking havoc across the UK – with offenders launching attacks on vulnerable OAPs, children and police.
Experts say there has been a surge in the number of girls and young women taking part in violence across British communities following a series of high-profile incidents and emergency service alerts – but they too often go untackled, a former Metropolitan Police detective has told MailOnline.
The British Transport Police last week shared images of young female suspects hunted over unprovoked attacks on pensioners on Southeastern rail services.
The linked incidents on routes going through south London came within an hour of each other and were thought to have been carried out by the same group.
The appeal for information follows concerns over a West Sussex village said to be ‘held hostage’ by gangs of ‘feral’ girls – including a brawl at Barnham’s rail station.
Three girls aged 14, 16 and 17 are currently charged with manslaughter over the death of 75-year-old Fredi Rivero following an attack in Islington, north London, on February 27 this year.
And investigations are continuing after 13-year-old pupil Olivia Allan was left with serious injuries after allegedly being ‘kicked like a football’ by a gang of girls in Morecambe, Lancashire, last month.
A report by the Local Government Association has highlighted how girls and young women were increasingly getting involved in violence – including a rise in the number of assaults on frontline workers.
Sussex Police issued dispersal orders covering the West Sussex village of Barnham after incidents including this attack involving girls at a rail station
Schoolgirl Olivia Allan (pictured), 13, was attacked in Morecambe, Lancashire, last month
Three girls aged 14, 16 and 17 have been charged with manslaughter following the death of 75-year-old Fredi Rivero after an attack in Islington, north London, in February this year
Researchers indicated particular issues with shoplifting, common assault and actual bodily harm – as well as ‘gang involvement and criminal exploitation’ especially the transportation of drugs across so-called ‘county lines’.
Damian Allain spent 31 years in the Metropolitan Police before retiring in 2017, having specialised in investigating homicide and organised crime.
Mr Allain, now a lecturer in policing, criminology and the criminal justice system at Brunel University of London, has now told MailOnline that the involvement of girls and young women in gangs has been too little recognised as a problem – including by police themselves.
He said of girls’ and young women’s involvement in gangs: ‘We’re seeing an increase, definitely.’
Mr Allain said research had shown 35 per cent of gang affiliations involve women – with many ‘groomed’ by male gang members, targeted for vulnerability relating to mental health issues or deprived backgrounds but often sharing criminal culpability.
Mr Allain said: ‘In some areas of south London, for male gang members part of their initiation is to sexually assault a female – there’s lots of grooming.
‘Young women will often be used to stash drugs or weapons because it is the men who are more likely to be targeted by the police.
‘The problem of girls in gangs too often goes unrecognised – if you were to ask the average member of the public, and even many police officers, what characterises a gang member it’s unlikely they’d identify it being female.
Four girls aged 13 to 16 were arrested on suspicion of assaulting an emergency services worker in the incident at Barnham rail station in West Sussex
‘And the deeper in they get, the more they’ll become involved with drugs, violence and other criminality.
‘The whole gang culture is wrapped around a concept of ‘getting rich quick’ – if you’re a female growing up in a downtrodden area, say, in south London, some sense of doing well out of being in a gang can become seen as an attractive proposition.’
He also highlighted how, as well as violent attacks, female involvement in shoplifting raids and similar crimes such as pickpocket teams in London’s West End was rising – while for too long not being a priority for police.
Mr Allain said: ‘Twenty years ago shoplifting would not have been regarded as part of organised crime but we are now getting plenty of it being organised and with girls and women it tends to go unseen.’
It comes as BTP issued an appeal this week for information to help track down a gang of teenage girls suspected over the spree of unprovoked assaults on elderly passengers on Southeastern trains.
The force released CCTV images of three girls thought to be behind the attacks, which took place on March 18.
The first unfolded at about 9.30pm when an elderly man was travelling on a Southeastern service from London Bridge to Woolwich Arsenal.
The victim was reportedly attacked without warning by a group of three girls in what officers branded a ‘vicious and cowardly’ assault.
Just over an hour later, at about 11pm, a second victim – this time an elderly woman – was targeted on a different train heading from London Bridge to Erith.
One of the girls was said to have approached the woman before launching an assault and a female passenger who stepped in to help then faced aggression from the attacker, police said.
Images released showed suspects dressed in casual streetwear, with one girl wearing a pink top under a black parka with a fluffy hood.
Another was dressed in a black jacket with a red logo on the right sleeve, grey trousers, and black shoes, while the third donned a black jacket over a grey tracksuit.
A BTP spokesperson said: ‘These were appalling attacks on vulnerable individuals who were simply going about their journeys.
‘We will not tolerate this kind of behaviour on our rail network and urge anyone who recognises the girls in these images to come forward.’
The BTP has now told MailOnline the force was no longer seeking to identify the people in the images shared, while thanking people for sharing the earlier appeal.
This latest alert comes just a few months after a group of girls and young women were spared terms behind bars over violence afflicting the village of Barnham in West Sussex.
Locals had told how they were frightened to leave their homes after shocking footage emerged on social media of a group of teenage girls assaulting an emergency worker at the village’s rail station.
Within 48 hours, a second clip went viral of another group of young girls appearing to loot the village’s local Co-op store.
More than 200 people attended an emergency meeting called last April and told councillors of their worries about the behaviour of a cannabis-smoking gang of girls.
One of the girls in Barnham was seen repeatedly hitting an officer in the head while another was seen on the floor
A shopkeeper also claimed the village was plagued with feral youth who exploit the train network serving the South Coast.
Yet the teenage girl gang behind the rail station attack on train staff, passengers and police that went viral online were later spared time behind bars.
The five girls, unable to be publicly named for legal reasons, threw punches, headbutts and ripped out hair in the incident described as ‘mass hysteria’.
One girl held up a clump of hair from the head of a rail passenger like a trophy during the hour-long melee, a court heard.
A judge said videos of the incident showed the girls were relentless, completely out of control and showing an ongoing determination to wreak havoc.
District judge Teresa Szagun told Brighton Magistrates’ Court: ‘It was chaos, mayhem, bedlam.’
The youngest was only 13 when a fight started at Barnham railway station in West Sussex between the group and another young girl.
Members of the public, train staff and police who tried to intervene were attacked by the girls.
A group of teenagers hanging around in Barnham. Sussex Police have said violent disorder and shoplifting in Barnham was largely committed by young people from out of the area
All five admitted affray and assaults on train staff, police and members of the public. Two were aged 15 at the time, two 16 and the youngest 13.
Two women were thrown about by the culprits before police were kicked and head butted as they tried to arrest them.
A train safety officer needed hospital treatment after he was smashed in the face with his own radio.
Judge Szagun told all five girls they would have been jailed if they had been old enough.
The attacks were completely out of character for the girls, the court heard – with one of them said to have been head girl at her school.
She was praised by supporters as an ‘exemplary student’ while fellow defendants were described as bright, capable and intelligent.
The three youngest girls were given nine-month referral orders by magistrates last December, while the two older girls were given 12-month intensive referral orders.
Compensation was ordered to be paid to the woman who lost a clump of hair, as well as her mother with whom she was travelling and a police officer who also had her hair pulled out.
Following the filmed attacks in Barnham, Sussex police were granted a dispersal order
Neighbourhood Facebook groups for the village have shared posts from angry residents reporting attempted thefts and anti-social behaviour.
Business owners have been attacked, a pensioner’s dog kicked and residents abused by gangs of young people travelling between towns and villages along the south coast by train.
Sue Wallsgrove, a member of Arun District Council representing Barnham, said: ‘It’s an utter nightmare. The past few months have been absolutely crazy.
‘There is a good train line and these youths use it to travel to the various villages on the route and cause mayhem.
‘They were coming here in gangs of up to 20 and stealing all sorts of things from the Tesco and Co-op store.
‘They are emboldened by their numbers and they act like a feral pack of dogs. They’d never behave so atrociously if it was just two or three of them. But it’s like a tyranny.’
And one mother-of-two living locally said: ‘All we’re asking for is a PCSO until these kids get bored and grow up. The trouble only happens on holidays and half terms when they’re off school – though I struggle to believe may of them go to school.
‘The girls are as bad as the lads and they’re like a pack of animals. They goad each other on.’
The five girls, who cannot be named for legal reasons, threw punches, headbutts and ripped out hair in an incident at Barnham railway station in West Sussex in March last year
In a further video posted to X, formerly Twitter , a group of teenage girls can be seen exiting the Co-op store near Barnham rail station carrying shopping items and running away
Meanwhile, three girls aged 14, 16 and 17 appeared before the Old Bailey in London on March 31 in relation to the death of Fredi Rivero in north London this February.
The Bolivian-born victim, 75, was near a bus stop on Seven Sisters Road, or the A503, when he was allegedly assaulted on February 27.
Mr Rivero was treated by officers and paramedics at the scene after he had collapsed, but he died in hospital the following day.
The suspects were initially arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm.
Photos taken the day after the incident showed a large police cordon around a bank, with bloodstains are visible on the pavement alongside tied-up rubbish bags and other pieces of debris.
Supt Annmarie Cowley, one of the senior officers responsible for policing Islington, has previously said: ‘I know this death will cause shock and very real concern in Holloway and the wider Islington area.
‘I share those concerns, and I want to assure local people that a thorough police investigation is under way.’
Elsewhere, a mother raised alarm after her 13-year-old daughter was injured after an alleged attack by a girl gang in Morecambe, Lancashire, last month.
CCTV pictures show pensioner Fredi Rivero before he was fatally attacked in the Islington area of north London at about 11.35pm on February 27
The victim was near a bus stop on Seven Sisters Road (pictured), or the A503, when attacked
Lancashire Police have arrested a 12-year-old girl on suspicion of assault following the attack on Olivia Allan, who sustained chipped teeth and injuries to her back and neck after she was set upon as she walked home from school on March 24.
Only the intervention of a stranger who came to her aid saved Olivia from more serious injury, according to her mother Keighley Marie, who was told by a doctor that further blows to the head could have caused lasting harm.
Footage of the attack circulated on social media showed one perpetrator ‘raining down blows’ to Olivia’s face after clambering on to her back, said her mother, who claimed the assault was premeditated.
Olivia, who was also left with bruising and footprints on her legs, spent three nights in hospital in the aftermath of the assault.
The schoolgirl’s mother, a mental health nurse, said: ‘It’s every parent’s worst nightmare.
‘I was at work in Lancaster when I got a call about what had happened and it was obviously school time, so there was traffic and I was in an absolute frenzy trying to get to her.
‘It just felt like it went on forever. The consultant in A&E said that if she had taken any more blows to the head, she could have been permanently brain damaged.’
Olivia Allan suffered swelling, scars and chipped teeth after she was attacked by four girls in Morecambe, Lancashire, last month – she also sustained injuries to her back, neck and legs
The Local Government Association-commissioned report on girls and young women involved in gangs and violence pointed to a rise in assaults on police officers, ambulance, and social workers as reported by different councils.
They attributed this to ‘girls’ feelings of being let down and re-traumatised by interactions with these services’.
The LGA also said: ‘Girls are perceived to be involved in gang activities like drug transportation and selling drugs in county lines but often go undetected due to gender stereotyping.
‘Instances of girls firstly being exploited by gang members and then exploiting others as a survival strategy were noted.’
Other potential causes for more girls getting involved in gangs were given as childhood trauma, poverty and the cost of living, negative experiences of authority, school experience and setbacks in the care system.
The LGA made recommendations including for more government cash to support ‘creative and recreational activities in a safe, youth-centred environment’ and ‘long-term funding for trauma-informed practice’.
Separate warnings have also been issued that teenage girls and young women are being groomed by criminal ‘county lines’ drug gangs with offers to pay for lip filler and Botox.
Vulnerable youths are increasingly being targeted by criminal enterprises with offers in exchange for helping transfer not only drugs but also guns, campaigners say.
And young women are proving especially prized, since they are seen as less likely to be targeted by police as their male counterparts.
Jade Hibbert, from the educational charity the St Giles Trust, raised the alert about the rising dangers being faced by girls and young women.
County lines is the term used to describe drug dealing where mobile phones are used to supply drugs and often using children as runners.
St Giles, which operates across the UK, told of girls being offered lip fillers and beauty products in exchange for transporting drugs – as well as young mothers being persuaded to carry narcotics and firearms inside prams to swerve detection.
Ms Hibbert, regional development manager at St Giles, cautioned how gang ringleaders were turning increasingly sophisticated in their recruitment tactics.
She said in January: ‘We have seen a massive shift across the Midlands of more and more female children being exploited – what they’re being manipulated with is Botox, fake eyelashes and fillers.
‘It used to be designer handbags or clothes but what we’re seeing is more perpetrators paying for treatments.’
The St Giles Trust has now opened a female-only service in Wolverhampton and works in every hospital A&E department across the West Midlands, offering mentors to each child referred to them for support.
Vulnerable young women and girls are increasingly being targeted by county lines drugs gangs, experts say – police are pictured raiding a home in Liverpool in December 2021
Charities have warned of the so-called ‘boyfriend model’, by which dealers’ female partners are taken advantage of as a cover less likely to attract police attention.
This can involve their homes being ‘cuckooed’ – that is, taken over and used as drug dealing bases.
As many as 60,000 girls across England are vulnerable to violence in a gang context, according to a recent report by the Commission on Young Lives and Manchester Metropolitan University.
And an NPCC report in March last year said: ‘It is possible that gender biases, including unconscious bias, mean that they are less likely to be interacted with by the police and therefore at greater risk, as there may be less intervention.’
MailOnline has contacted the police forces involved in the investigations mentioned above. BTP said they would update if any arrests were made, while the Metropolitan Police said the three suspects in the Islington case appeared before the Old Bailey on March 31. Lancashire Police were also approached.
