People living on a Liverpool street say they are being “terrorised”
13:25, 15 Feb 2026Updated 13:58, 15 Feb 2026
Moment group of youths kick door in
Neighbours on a Liverpool street say they are scared to leave their homes in the evening because of what gangs of youths are getting up to on their doorsteps. In doorbell footage shared with the ECHO, a group of boys can be seen running down the street before one of them begins kicking a resident’s door in.
Dennis Murphy, 62, has been living in his home in Woolton for 35 years and said this behaviour was nothing new. He told the ECHO: “About three months ago, my neighbour started complaining that gangs of lads were coming down from St Mary’s Churchyard after drinking and taking drugs.
“We’re talking roughly 13-year-olds. It’s been an ongoing problem for a long time and the police have been involved historically. It’s generational so one group of lads outgrow it and then the next generation come up and take over the baton so to speak.
“This latest gang of lads that are up there in the churchyard are running past the houses and kicking the doors in. We live in small houses that lead right out onto the street and a lot of people on our street live alone so it’s really frightening.”
Dennis said the latest victim of the door-kicking had to pay £250 to get his locks replaced and another neighbour had the door number stolen from her door.
He added: “We’ve all got marks on our doors from where they’ve been trying to kick them down. I’ve heard my door being kicked but I’ve got very strong locks so it hasn’t been kicked off its hinges yet but you feel like you’re not safe in your home. It’s like being ram-raided.
“One of my neighbours also got her door kicked in five weeks ago. She’s 86 and bedbound after she broke her hip. Her bed’s downstairs so if no one had noticed the noise she would have been in there all night with the door open.
“When it gets to after 6pm we’re all just shut up in our houses and just waiting for the kicking and screaming to start. If you do go out of an evening it’s such a relief when you walk back to your house and see everything’s still in tact.
“The drug-taking in the church yard has been going on for a long time and it’s terrible.”
Dennis said he also encountered trouble six months ago when he was unpacking his shopping from his car. After temporarily going upstairs he said he saw a group of boys taking things out of his car.
He added: “I shouted out the window to them and they didn’t flinch or anything. They just carried on with what they were doing and walked off. No one’s stopping these boys.
“No one wants to confront them because we’re too scared. We’re being terrorised.”
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