Locals living on an estate overrun with drug dealers and sex workers say they are scared to leave the house - and claim police have "given up" on protecting them.
Residents of Townley Court in Stratford, East London, have spoken of being mugged multiple times - while children reported witnessing sex acts on their way to school. Locals admit they're scared to leave or sometimes even peer outside the windows of their homes, and many say they've given up on calling police as they don't do anything.
The estate has now become so lawless that disabled people report having had guns pulled on them and naked sex workers frolic in the open near playing children. Graffiti referencing a 'Demon Gang' has also appeared. Residents fear it will take someone's death before action is taken.
One furious mum showed doorbell camera footage of her nine-year-old son leaving home and encountering a sex worker and her client having sex in the stairwell.
One disabled resident, who challenged a gang inside his building, says he had a gun pulled on him. "We're under siege," said one resident who asked to remain anonymous. "It's like a horror show. It's so dangerous around here," a neighbour added. "At night, I'm scared coming home. As soon as it gets dark, I'm panicking."
One elderly resident said he had been mugged twice. "Police never turned up," he said of the latest attack. "They said they didn't have enough vehicles... It's the same story every time." He said one of the gang even smirked at him, boasting: "You can't do nothing." I'm frightened sometimes to even look outside, in case they see me," one mum living on the estate said.
"They're very hostile. They don't care. They do it out in the open because they know nothing's going to happen. If you call the police, they turn up hours later or just send them on their way. They just come back 10, 15 minutes later. Sometimes police drive right past people openly doing drugs and do nothing."
As a result of their inactivity, many residents said they had now given up calling the police at all. "The police talk to us like we're a crowd of idiots," one man said. "They have a script and they just stick to it." "It's as if the police and the council are scared of them," a woman added. "It's like things have got out of control and they can't get it back now, so they've just given up.
"I've seen a woman pull down her knickers and go to the toilet in the middle of the road. A council worker was there. I said, 'Look!', but he just said, 'There's nothing I can do'." Addicts and sex workers have reportedly obtained keys used by firefighters, enabling them to enter residents' blocks to use drugs, have sex, vomit, and defecate, it's been claimed.
Locals said the estate has become so lawless that sex workers sometimes walk around naked. "I feel sorry for them," one man said. "They are humans like us. But we are not disturbing other people's lives. We don't need this happening right in front of our doors." Drug users are said to hold noisy gatherings in residents' doorways and gardens 'every single night'.
"We had a fight here the other night," one man said. "They were shouting, 'Give me the knife! Give me the knife!'" Residents added that sex workers also sometimes rob their customers, leading to shouting and screaming. A school worker who has lived on the estate for more than 20 years said it was badly affecting children living on the estate.
"It's just relentless," they said. "Sometimes I'm going to work on two, three hours' sleep. Some of the kids from around here are at my school and they're not sleeping either." Residents have also become accustomed to finding addicts passed out in the street. The London Ambulance Service was last called out last month to an unresponsive woman.
"I went to work and came back at the end of the day and the woman was still there in the same position," said the resident who rang them. "I thought she was dead." Another man said he'd been threatened with a machete when he confronted a gang member, saying: "A guy put a camera in my face and tried to punch me in the face.
"As soon as I took his camera away, he pulled a knife the size of my forearm." Another time, the resident claimed the gang stole his children's trainers. "Every night I have a phone call from my Mrs saying, 'They're here, they're fighting, they're p******, they're s*******," he added.
"We find needles, condoms... Every morning I have to clean the stairwell before I take my kids to school." The man added that abusive messages were scrawled on his building after his wife simply asked suspected gang members to move so she could enter her home. Those messages have now been washed away, but a graffiti tag reading 'Demon Gang' remains daubed on the doorway.
The Met Police claimed not to know of any named gang linked to the estate. Urine and suspected drug wraps were visible in the man's stairwell, while faeces, condoms, discarded underwear, and a knife were found in gardens on the estate. Residents said they had risked gathering evidence, only to be ignored.
When addicts realised locals had started filming them, some started taking their drugs behind umbrellas. Locals said they spent months collecting photos and videos of a suspected drug dealer's car. "People sleep in there, have sex in there, take drugs in there," one resident said.
But no action seems to have been taken, though The Met said it was 'aware of a potentially suspicious vehicle' and was 'investigating'. "Someone is going to get killed," one man said. "We're all suffering." Residents said the authorities carried out 'pointless' daylight patrols, despite the problems overwhelmingly occurring overnight.
"We have carried out numerous tasking patrols but unfortunately all the issues raised happen outside of operational hours," Newham Council admitted. It added: "We will now ensure overtime patrols are in place to support residents." The Met said it too was now 'reviewing shift patterns for local officers to ensure they are in the area at the right times'.
One young woman, whose parents bought their home on the estate in the 1990s, said it wasn't always like this. "I just don't understand it," she said. "Stratford is a prime location. How can they let things get this bad? It's like they just don't give a damn. Every time I come back from the gym, I'm like, 'Please, God, I hope they don't do anything to me... It's just so scary."
Recently, the woman's car was broken into. But when she started parking further away as a result, she received a fine. "So they don't mind coming around here to give out parking tickets," she fumed. "It's embarrassing, as well as being unsafe. You don't want to invite people to your house.
"The police are doing absolutely nothing. Maybe, one of these days, if somebody gets hurt, then they will come." One pensioner agreed, saying: "It's like they are waiting for someone to actually get stabbed. I just don't know how it's going to end. It's got to be stopped, one way or another. It's going to get deadly otherwise."
Another frustrated resident added: "If the police and the council did their jobs, we wouldn't have to put up with all this." Newham Council said it would secure blocks of flats with new locks, preventing intruders from entering with fire keys. "We have been working together with the police to deter the antisocial behaviour issues through joint operations, which has resulted in arrests and community protection orders issued in March 2024," a spokesperson said.
A spokesperson for the Met added: " We are working hard to tackle the issue in order to make residents feel safer. We have listened to concerns and are actively working with partners to reduce problems in the area. As part of this work, we have a Design Out Crime officer visiting the area. They will make recommendations on what needs to change."