A MOTHER of three was set upon by a gang of youths – because she wouldn’t let them use her parking space as a football goal.

Jane Etheridge spoke of her ordeal at the hands of a dozen yobs while attending a meeting at the memorial hall at Wainscott, near Rochester.

The Medway councillor was attacked after refusing to move her car from a parking area so the space could be used as a goal.

She was knocked to the ground, hit in the back and had the ball repeatedly kicked at her. Several of the youths also jumped on her car, smashing an electric mirror.

Eventually Cllr Etheridge, who has three teenage sons, managed to get away from the gang.

But she had difficulty raising the alarm at the village hall because the groups inside had locked themselves in to keep the same yobs out.

“I wasn’t going to show I was frightened,” Mrs Etheridge said, as she recovered at home in Strood from the attack last Thursday that left her bruised, shaken and shocked.

“I told them to go away and play in the recreation ground, and that if I called the police, they’d come straight away.”

That’s when the terrifying assault took place. “Not one of them tried to stop it,” she said. “It was like they were a pack. No one came forward and said 'leave her’.”

“It has really taken it out of me,” she admitted.

Ironically, Cllr Etheridge has been championing youth at Medway Council for several years, and especially in Wainscott and Upnor where she also serves on the Frindsbury Extra parish council.

Youngsters have been provided with a shelter, basketball facilities and a youth club that opened five weeks ago. There are plans to light part of the recreation ground for them to play at night.