I’m too scared to go out at night in London’s knife crime epidemic – I’m not safe, says TV legend John McCirick’s wife
THE widow of a TV legend says she doesn’t feel safe to live in her “posh” London neighbourhood after a rise in knife crime.
But, Jenny McCririck, the widow of late Channel Four racing pundit John McCririck, says she’s staying put in Primrose Hill.
Primrose Hill is the leafy north London enclave that became synonymous with wealth and excess thanks to the antics of Kate Moss, Jude Law and Liam Gallagher.
But disgruntled residents say these days you are more likely to bump into a thug wearing a hoodie than you are to an A-list celebrity in Primrose Hill.
Following the fatal stabbing of 16-year-old schoolboy Harry Pitman on New Year’s Eve, The Sun can reveal that locals have been warning of a surge in violence and anti-social behaviour for three years.
McCririck says: “I don’t feel safe. We have low level drug dealing and a knife problem that is fuelled by social media. We have kids speeding around on bikes so fast they are going to kill somebody.
“Just the other day I saw a Deliveroo delivery man riding a moped through the park.
“People are having their mobile phones snatched and it was never like that before. When I moved here 30 years ago, we could walk through the park at night and it was safe.
“I don’t like to go there after dark now because you don’t know who is lurking around the corner.”
Eleanor Sturdy chairs the Primrose Hill crime panel and says the area’s historic park can resemble a music festival some days as hoodlums take drugs and have sex in full view of members of the public.
She said: “It started during the pandemic when people realised it’s an open space that is difficult to keep secure.
“If someone has a firework, they can let it off in the park and by the time you’ve got through to the police, they’ve gone.
“My husband and I live in a flat next to the park and we are regularly woken up at 1am by people playing music and letting off fireworks.
“In 2020, I was assaulted by one of two men that were using a huge speaker outside my window in the early hours of the morning.
“I opened my window like a fish wife and said, ‘Will you turn that music off?’ I expected an apology, but they said, ‘Come down and say that.’
“I went down and started filming them on my phone, which was a mistake.
“One of them grabbed my phone and threw it across the road. He said some very rude things and then he grabbed me under my pyjamas.
“A very brave female police officer caught up with the man – who it turned out was 27 years old and employed – and rugby tackled him to the ground.
“After he was arrested, I spent months feeling anxious about the case and having to testify.
“But when we finally went to court a year later, it turned out the police and the CPS had not charged him in time and they had to let him go.
“Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, who is our MP, personally apologised to me afterwards. He was appalled.
“This was during the early days of the pandemic when the park had become like a music festival with no security.
“People were dealing drugs and having sex in the bushes and weeing and pooing in them too.
“They started vandalising the local businesses and smashing their windows. They even broke into the wine shop and the bookstore, although they didn’t steal a single book.”
Royal Parks, who oversee the 60-acre site, has now applied for permission to install a permanent gate so it can be closed at night.
Eleanor says that those in favour of the move, like her, have been accused of being “posh” and out-of-touch, although she is at pains to point out that she does not own a garden or live in a huge house.
During last week’s New Year’s Eve celebrations, during which an estimated 20,000 people gathered on the park’s summit to enjoy panoramic views of the fireworks exploding above the London Eye.
Around 54 police officers were said to be on duty and attendees were screened on entry.
A 15-year-old has since been arrested on suspicion of murder following the fatal stabbing of innocent football fan Harry, who’s heartbroken family live in Tottenham.
An 18-year-old man was also arrested on suspicion of affray while a 16-year-old was arrested then released on bail pending further inquiries.
Paramedics battled to save Harry’s life until he was declared dead just before midnight on December 31, while heartless revellers continued their celebrations. Police later reported he had been involved in “an altercation that would have devastating consequences.”
Eleanor added: “Now someone has been killed, it is a tragic vindication for those of us that have been worried about the situation – and warning that something terrible was going to happen – for years.
“We’ve been reporting serious crimes for three years now and they have been patting us on the heads and saying, ‘Don’t worry.’”
Primrose Hill was surprisingly tranquil when The Sun visited this week, with a handful of burned-out fireworks and an incongruous portaloo the only reminder of the chaos that unfolded days earlier.
Property prices have remained resilient despite the so-called ‘Primrose Hill set’ – that included actor Law and his then wife Sadie Frost – moving on and the area’s reputation being sullied by the recent violence.
Locals claim that a German tourist had his hand hacked by a machete-wielding mugger trying to steal his phone in December 2022 and there have been numerous incidents of flashing and anti-social behaviour.
A number of wealthy celebrities including model Kate Moss and chef Jamie Oliver have moved to gated properties that offer greater security in nearby Highgate and Hampstead, we were told.
Jenny McCririck, the widow of late Channel Four racing pundit John McCririck, is one notable resident who is staying put.
But she added: “I don’t feel safe. We have low level drug dealing and a knife problem that is fuelled by social media. We have kids speeding around on bikes so fast they are going to kill somebody.
“Just the other day I saw a Deliveroo delivery man riding a moped through the park.
“People are having their mobile phones snatched and it was never like that before. When I moved here 30 years ago, we could walk through the park at night and it was safe.
“I don’t like to go there after dark now because you don’t know who is lurking around the corner.”
Company director Ryan Murray, 50, blames London Mayor Sadiq Khan for the knife crime epidemic that has spilled over into Primrose Hill.
Harry was the 21st teenager to meet a violent death in London last year, 18 of whom were stabbed.
Ryan said: “There is no way Khan is going to get my vote. His disdain for the police is well documented and he’s more interested in being woke than doing what is best for London.”
Cradling her toy poodle Pen, American writer Janet Jones, 60, agrees that during lockdown the park changed.
She said: “I’ve lived here for 12 years and it was during lockdown that word got out that this was the place to come and party.
“It became like a nightclub up on the hill. It was dramatically different to the park we had known before and it was dangerous to walk around here because of all the broken glass and litter.
“They were vandalising shops and graffitiing everything including this William Blake poem inscribed into the concrete here.
“I don’t want permanent gates on the park because this has always been a special place and I want it to stay that way.
“But more attention needs to be paid to youth violence. I was in LA when the riots happened and this reminds me of Rodney King asking, ‘Why can’t we all just get along?’”
