Three men try to abduct school girl in Hove

A quick-thinking school girl was accosted in a park in Hove yesterday (Tuesday 6 September) but her brave response kept her safe.

Three men approached the girl, a pupil at Brighton and Hove High School, in Nizells Avenue as she was walking past St Ann’s Well Gardens just before 4pm.

The men emerged from the park and one of them demanded to look in her bag before grabbing her and telling her: “You are coming with us.”

Head teacher Lorna Duggleby said in a letter to parents: “Fortunately the girl had been very well trained and shouted at the top of her voice: ‘I don’t  know you.’

“Luckily there were other people around and the girl’s swift action meant that the three men ran off.”

She said that the “serious near miss” happened extremely quickly.

She added: “The three men were all wearing dark hoodies.

“One man was black with a slight mark on his cheek and the other two were white.

“They all looked unkempt and wore loose trousers.”

The head has warned all the girls at the school in Montpelier Road, Brighton, about the incident and discussed with them “the safest course of action in this very unlikely kind of event”.

She urged the girls not to use their phones or other expensive electronic devices when walking to and from school.

Sussex Police had been informed she said, adding: “The police have a full description and I am certain will be in evidence in the area for the foreseeable future.

“They are taking this matter very seriously indeed.”