A WALCOT man who was assaulted when a group broke into his home has had an apology from the chief of police after admin systems failed.

Neil Alder-Hindon, 46, of Frobisher Drive, was assaulted in August along with his wife Nicola while they were at their home.

A neighbourhood dispute over a fire at nearby allotments during the summer boiled over, resulting in three people, including 56-year-old Christopher Rudman, of Portland Avenue, forcing their way into Neil’s home on August 14 and attacking the couple.

Neil has now lodged complaints with the police and CPS after he says he was advised not to report the crime, not informed of the court dates and had to wait 11 weeks for a crime number to make an insurance claim.

“We had a fire in our allotments and we got into an argument with the neighbours who said it was our fault,” said Neil. “Our neighbours’ fence caught some of the fire and her son [Rudman] said we should be paying for it.

“Police investigated that and found we were not at fault, but a few days later the neighbours’ son decided to come down and knock on my door with two others. I opened the window and he lifted his hands up and kept punching me.

“My wife was screaming because he was trying to pull me through the window.

“He then smashed the door in, cornered me in the hallway, and kept throttling and punching me.”

“The police said the CPS were going to contact me but we never knew when he was going to court.

He says four days after the attack, their home was broken into and CCTV system smashed.

Neil said he did eventually receive a letter informing him that Rudman had been fined £150 for assaulting him, £50 for assaulting his wife Nicola and given an 18-month conditional discharge.

“The whole thing was farcical. I have now put in a complaint to the police and the CPS,” said Neil.

“I had three people all enter my house and the police decided not to prosecute two of them.

“The officer who first arrived asked me if I really wanted to report it considering it was a domestic incident.

“It has taken 11 weeks to even get a crime number from the police to give to my insurance company to get the door fixed.”

Police have since apologised to Neil for the service and say they will investigate further.

Chief Constable Pat Geenty told him: “I apologise for the service received and it clearly was not good enough.

“You should not have to wait 11 weeks for a crime number and that is unacceptable.

“I have taken the decision not to remove front-line officers. To preserve those numbers we have had to take resources from the backroom staff.

“I suspect somewhere I have cut some staff from the admin budget who would have been responsible for this. There are more cuts coming and I can only ask my officers to do so much.”

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