Police address public meeting following horrific attack in Oldham is shared on social media.
Date published: 04 July 2022
Residents were concerned about the violent video circulating online
Hundreds of people have gathered in the car park at the Anchor Business Centre in Werneth, concerned about the vicious assault on a young man which has been widely shared on social media.
The horrific video shows a young male attacked by a number of youths, who pushed him to the ground before repeatedly kicking and hitting him.
The victim, whose face is covered in blood, begs his attackers to stop, and screams in pain as they continue the assault. His clothes were then forcibly removed, as feet are placed on his neck, and stomach.
Whilst circulating only in the past few days, the attack occurred on 21 June 2022.
Inspector Alan Sanders, from GMP's Oldham district, confirmed that three people have been arrested in connection to the original assault.
He told the gathering on Sunday afternoon: "I know emotions are high and that you feel police have been slow on the uptake with this. I apologise for that.
"We know things now, following the events of yesterday, that we didn’t know on the 21st. That has changed the urgency and risk and we’ve quite rightly stepped up our investigation.
"We have already made three arrests in relation to this incident and we know there are other in people involved. If we can identify those people, we will also arrest those.
Councillor Abdul Jabbar, deputy leader of Oldham Council, also addressed concerns, and asked for calm.
"This a terrible incident and everybody is rightly outraged by it.
"When something like this happens, the community gets rightly angry and wants to find out what’s happened.
"Are we outraged? Absolutely. Do we want to stop this happening again? Absolutely. The message from me, the council and the police is to be calm. We will go after these people and bring them to justice, but we need to trust the police to do that."
Anyone with information is asked to contact 101, quoting log 1708 of the 3rd July 2022.
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