Letter: 'We're sad and shocked after witnessing bus attack'

We have been visiting Bermuda over the past 15 years as we have friends that live there and it is a place we adore very much.  However, we have just returned from your beautiful island and are incredibly sad and shocked by what we witnessed on the 9.15pm No 7 bus from Hamilton to Dockyard on Friday 24th August. 

Our transportation changed from scooter to “pink bus” when our daughter was born 7 years ago and to date it has been a good experience (despite a strike last year).

We had enjoyed a family meal out in town and caught the last bus back to Southampton.  A young man (the victim) politely let myself and my daughter board the bus ahead of him, he sat in the row in front of us and quietly listened to his music.  When we reached “Sea Cliffs” a group of 10 young men (thugs) boarded the bus and sat in our vicinity, one of them sat next to the victim and immediately started cuffing the victim round the head.  The atmosphere became very uncomfortable and a couple of stops later (close to the Regiment) the group went to get off, the thug seated next to the victim repeatedly punched him round the head – an act totally unprovoked.  My husband and a man in front tried to stop the attack, whilst I had to shield my 7 year old daughter’s eyes from the scene.

They finally left the bus, and the driver performed his duties by calling the Police and his base to report the attack.

The group were clearly part of a gang and I’m not saying that the victim wasn’t also part of a gang, but we are utterly astonished by what we and our 7 year old witnessed.

If Bermuda has really succumbed and accepted this sort of behaviour from its youth, which is clearly down to bad parenting and a lack of respect and pride, then clearly the authorities should be ahead of the situation and install CCTV on all transport and around the island.  It is this technology that succeeded in prosecuting many teenagers in the UK riots last year.

Bermuda wake up and please do something about this atrocious behaviour for everybody’s sake.

Morley Family.  U.K.