An ex-copper cycling with his son, 13, was injured after six men on mopeds attacked them in south London.
Reports of violent bike-jackings have rocked well-heeled Dulwich as gangs target cyclists heading to the velodrome on their high-end bikes.
Adrian Matthews, 45, was riding back from the arena with his 13-year-old son last Thursday, when six men on mopeds suddenly appeared near the South Circular junction.
After trying to kick at Adrian but missing him, they turned to his son and ‘kicked him in the right leg,’ making him swerve on the curb.
‘As soon as I saw them kick my son, I got really angry,’ the dad of three told Metro.
After shouting and blocking the attackers, he managed to grab a phone one of the men had dropped, leading to a fight as their focus turned on him.
‘I threw his phone about 40ft down the street, and he punched me on the side of my face. His helmet visor was open, so I grabbed him by the helmet and dragged him towards the floor,’ he said.
‘He pushed me into the side posts with chains in between, and I tripped. As a result of tripping over, they instantly jumped on me, kicking me in the face, the back and stomping all over my body.’
The four men then grabbed Adrian’s £2,000 bike and fled.
His main fear was his son, who had witnessed the vicious attack, which left Adrian with bruises, a black eye, a broken rib and scratches.
‘He was just in a shock, because he has never seen anything like this happen before and it is completely against his nature,’ the former Met Police officer said.
‘I kept asking if I had been stabbed as it felt like something went inside. It was a mob.’
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After Adrian had been checked by the ambulance crew, police officers drove him around in the area, where they managed to find his bike pouch and mobile phone nearby.
He called for more action to tackle bike jacking as attackers ‘know they can get away with it’ and ‘there will be a point where they will kill someone.’
‘There is no defence from them taking your bike. We are trying to get kids to enjoy cycling and kids to go out independently and to stay fit and healthy, and this has just smashed the level of confidence in my family as to whether we can take our kids out again.
‘Luckily, it was my eldest one – if it had been my eight or ten-year-old, they probably would have been destroyed,’ Adrian added.
With the summer holidays starting and children cycling around, he worried about what could happen.
Velo Club Londres, Adrian’s local cycling group, told Metro the attack has ‘deeply shaken’ the community.
Hanan Hauari, the club’s chair, said: ‘Sadly, this wasn’t an isolated incident – we are hearing of more cyclists being targeted in South London, often while returning from training or commuting. These crimes are violent, coordinated, and clearly escalating.’
Met Police confirmed it is investigating the robbery of a bike in College Road, Southwark, on Thursday evening.
‘The man received minor injuries in the incident but did not require treatment. There have been no arrests at this stage and enquiries continue, the force said.
‘They are prepared for violence’
A similar attack on Friday, June 27, left James Zuccollo with a broken hand when two young men on a moped chased and attacked him on his way back from work on Bowen Drive.
He told Metro: ‘I passed a couple of lads on a moped, who looked like late teens, but it is difficult to say because they were wearing balaclavas and helmets.
‘They pulled in front of me and cut me off, and pushed me off my bike, causing me to crash, then wrestled the bike off me and put it over their shoulder and drove off.’
The thieves got away with James’ Canyon Ultimate road bike, which cost around £4,000-£5,000 ten years ago and was his ‘favourite bike.’
James, who is over 6”4 and not a ‘tiny target,’ said he felt ‘just resignation’ when he realised there was no help in sight.
‘It is something of a shock when it happens, but you quickly realise there isn’t much you can do,’ he said.
‘And the last thing would be some kind of a physical brawl when I was outnumbered, with two people who had clearly come with a plan in mind and prepared for violence.’
The biggest cost of the incident is the ‘sense of violation you feel having your stuff taken off you like that.’
‘Even more than that, and I’m lucky enough to have insurance and I will be able to replace my bicycle, but a sense of fear one has about cycling around and exercising and being outdoors in your local area.
‘Many of us feel unsafe, and I feel unsafe, riding now on my own. I’m very hesitant to do it.
‘That sense of fear that keeps you off the road and out of the countryside is probably the biggest cost,’ he added.
Joe Booth, the general secretary of the Dulwich Paragon cycling club, told Metro that bike-jackers appear more brazen now with a ‘sense of organisation behind it.’
‘It is sickening and worrying. We have about 400 members, and a significant number are women. It’s easy to say we’re going out as a group, but if you can’t even ride up College Road to meet people and ride confidently to the start of the ride, it will interfere with people’s ability to ride.’
There have been reports of at least one further attack and one attempt in the last two weeks on College Road by men on mopeds, and reports of two similar assaults of riders on Shirley Church Road in Croydon.
In January, ‘bike-jackets’ targeted riders in Regent’s Park armed with hammers. Patrick Conneely, 33, had his £4,200 road bike stolen when two hammer-wielding men forced him off his bike as he was doing laps on the park’s Outer Circle.
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