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TERRORISED in their new home by yobs and battered in the street by young thugs, this family has today told of their not-so-warm welcome to Tyneside.

What was supposed to be a dream move back to her native Newcastle with her family has become a living hell for Kathy Akrigg.

It has been just six months since the mum, her husband Barrie, 42, and their three children left West Yorkshire to start a new life in West Denton, Newcastle.

But since moving into their new home, on Downham, the family have been verbally abused in the street, had their house burgled and their windows broken.

And on Monday the campaign of harassment and torment took a violent turn for the worse when the Akriggs’ youngest son, Daniel Morris, 15, was battered black and blue as he walked home from school.

Today, as Kathy desperately waits to move to a safer area, she has told the Chronicle of the guilt she feels after bringing her family into the nightmare.

The 35-year-old said: “When you see one of your babies has been hurt you just feel totally helpless because you can’t protect them. For a mother it’s just the worst experience.

“I had sold Newcastle as this wonderful safe place to live. I feel totally responsible.”

The Akriggs decided to move from Keighley to Newcastle at the end of last year to be close to Kathy’s family.

But after moving into their new home, a group of young teens on the estate began victimising the family.

Yobs, some as young as 10, would hurl things at their windows. And youngsters repeatedly congregated in their back garden, sometimes drinking and bringing dogs with them.

Kathy discussed her problems with neighbours who told her a gang called the West Denton Wild Boys had used her house as a meeting place before she moved in.

“We were told this was their patch,” she explained. “But we thought they would eventually clear off when they realised we were living here.”

But a few weeks later the family’s windows were put in.

And then the kids started shouting abuse at them in the street, calling them Yorkshire scum.

“It got very intimidating,” said Kathy. “They would make comments in the street.

“By February we knew we wanted to get out.”

And on Tuesday, May 1, Kathy’s daughter Connie, 13, was assaulted in the car park at Morrisons.

The Akriggs reported each incident to the police. Every time officers came out they saw youths running away from the property, but have not yet been able to identify those responsible.

Local police have worked with Your Homes Newcastle (YHN) to make the family a priority for rehousing, and a new home has been found in another area of Newcastle. But they are still waiting for a moving date.

And when Daniel, who has special needs, came home from school bloodied and bruised, on Monday, Kathy became even more desperate to get out of West Denton.

“He came through the door at around 100 miles an hour,” said Kathy. “He doesn’t even remember how he got home.

“He had been punched about 10 times.

“It was just an absolute shock. It was the worst feeling in the world seeing your son like that, seeing the fear and shock in his face.

“It was horrible, words can’t describe what it was like to see him like that.”

Thankfully Daniel escaped without serious injury.

“The last six months have just been a complete nightmare,” said Kathy.

“We have just had to sit here and take it while people are attacking our family. No one in the area will stand up to them or get involved. Nobody wants to help us.”

Northumbria Police’s Neighbourhood Insp for West Denton, Julie Rana, said: “We recognise the issue has been causing distress to the family and we take anything which impacts on the quality of life of other people extremely seriously.

“The Neighbourhood Policing Team are well aware of the issues the family has had and calls to the area were treated with the highest priority. Concerted efforts were made to try to identify the people involved in each incident.

“There's no place for any behaviour such as this and as such we've been working very closely alongside the family and with our partners at the local authority to move them away from the area.”

However, police believe the two assaults on Kathy’s children were not linked to the anti-social behaviour.

A 13-year-old girl has been arrested on suspicion of attacking Connie and released on bail. Inquiries into the attack on Daniel are ongoing.