A young woman had described being “thrown to the ground and mugged for her headphones by a 10-year-old boy on a bike” in an east London street.
Sara Roebuck , 25, described the moment the blonde haired, blue-eyed child pushed her to the floor after “circling her” on his pushbike as she walked along a busy high street in broad daylight.
The student, who studies socio-economic politics at LSE, was walking along Queensbridge Road, in Hackney, when she spotted the boy “looking lost”.
“I noticed him and got a good look at him because he looked over at me. He was circling around me but I thought he looked lost. Because he was so young I assumed he was lost.
“He looked no older than 13 but I’d say he was around 10.
“A few minutes later I felt someone shove me, I fell to the ground and he took my headphones. I saw him cycle off,” Ms Roebuck told the Standard.
The shaken victim, who claims to have previously had her phone snatched by a male cyclist, then took herself into a side street to phone the police.
She described her “sadness” over the age of her “small, thin” mugger.
“I ever felt such deep sadness by a crime committed by a child, thin, not in school, in broad daylight, the middle of the street.
“I know not to have my phone in my hand near busy streets, I see the signs in the Tube about criminals on mopeds, I take precautions very seriously.
“I’ve been attacked before but by grown men, then I was shaken and scared and angry. They’re adults, they need to take responsibility for themselves but this is a child.
“These are kids who see expensive objects and think ‘I’m going to take that’ because they feel like they’ve got nothing else to lose.”
In a powerful Facebook post published after the incident, Ms Roebuck added: “How, as a society, have we allowed children below the age of 13 to feel compelled to push women onto the floor and rob their belongings?
“I’m furious, not for the loss of an object that was important to me, but for the fact that a child did this.”
Scotland Yard confirmed they had been called to reports of a snatch theft on Queensbridge Road, Hackney, at 5pm on May 10.
A spokesman told the Standard: “We spoke to a victim aged 25. The suspect was described as a white male aged 13 or under.
“No arrests have been made.”
