Councillor calls for "morons" who stretched neck high string across Hampshire road to "face full force of the law"

Police are investigating an incident in which a thick piece of string was tied at neck height between two lamp posts across a road in Totton, Hampshire. A local councillor has branded the culprits ‘morons’ and demanded that they ‘face the full force of the law’

The string was found on Thursday 2^nd October near Water Lane’s junction with Bagber Road. It is thought that it had been put up between 9pm and 10pm when it would have been even more difficult to see.

Police described the string as being at neck or chest height and of particular danger to cyclists and motorcyclists.

Speaking to the Southern Daily Echo, Totton councillor Chris Lagdon said:

“The morons responsible must be tracked down by the police and made to face the full force of the law. As a motorcycle rider myself I know how dangerous something like that can be. It was an atrocious thing to do and I’m absolutely disgusted that an incident of this sort has occurred in Totton.”

Mog Morrison, head of the New Forest Motor Cycle Action Group, said that the string could have killed someone.

“Depending on the tension of the string and the speed at which they were travelling, they could have suffered a very serious injury – a broken neck at least. This sort of thing has killed people in the past.”

In March, two Merseyside girls were arrested after teaching assistant, Siobhan Delamare, hit a rope strung across a path while cycling home to Rock Ferry.

The rope was from a life-ring and had been deliberately stretched across Egremont Promenade. Delamare heard laughter immediately before the incident and it seems the girls were videoing what happened on a mobile phone.

The two girls, who were aged 13 and 15, didn’t face criminal charges after Siobhan agreed to meet them as a form of restorative justice.

Speaking to The Mirror, Siobhan said:

“I want to tell them how it’s affected me. All they have seen is the initial pictures, they haven’t seen the after-effects. I’ve got a suspected fracture of my thumb and need to have a tooth out. I’m inundated with appointments, I’ve been referred to a physio and I’m having treatment for everything.

“I’ve not been myself since, a friend said ‘you’re not the same person, the sparkle’s gone’. I want to ask them ‘is all this worth it for a cheap laugh’? By meeting them I will have a chance to have my say face-to-face and drive that message home.”

In August, six-year-old Lilly Bailey-Deacon was left with cuts and bruises around her neck after riding into a BMX brake cable strung across a path in Wheatlands Park, Titchfield Common, Hampshire.

An appeal was put out for witnesses – in particular for two teenage boys who had been seen on their mobile phones nearby just prior to the incident – but the investigation was closed last month as no-one had come forward.