Brave Oliver, 12, recovering yesterday from his ordeal

Businessman Stuart Pettman was photographed, fingerprinted and forced to give a DNA sample after trying to get justice for his traumatised son Oliver. Mr Pettman, 43, was furious after Oliver was surrounded by older youths who fired the pistol into his head, back and leg after picking a fight with him in a park. He spotted the thug in the street hours later and insisted he accompany him to the police station. But he was stunned to find he was the one arrested. The father of two was surrounded by four policemen and told he was being held for assault with a deadly weapon after the airgun-toting youth made a complaint about him and his car keys were mistaken for a knife. Officers only released him after he had languished for seven hours in a cell as his wife Heather, 43, their daughter Stephanie, 14, and Oliver, ­worried about him.

I work hard, I don’t break the law, I’m polite, I try to do the right thing all the time, and they treated me like a criminal Stuart Pettman

Police have told him he will not be charged but the ordeal has persuaded Mr Pettman, who runs an ­internet service for financial traders, to move his family to Singapore where he is opening a new office. Speaking from his £800,000 detached house in Bexley Village, south London, he said: “To me, this is just typical of broken Britain, and I have had enough. “I work hard, I don’t break the law, I’m polite, I try to do the right thing all the time, and they treated me like a criminal. “I never touched this lad. He didn’t have any marks on him, there was no bruising on him or any other marks. All the witnesses who saw everything backed up my side of the story.”

Mr Pettman added: “I have always told the kids that the right thing to do if people harm you is to go to the police. Look what happened. They did nothing about these youths who were walking round shooting people with an airgun, but they were only too happy to treat me like a dangerous criminal.” Oliver was approached by four youths and three girls aged about 15 in the neighbourhood’s Golden Acre Park. Oliver said: “One came up to me and said ‘He’s a racist boy’. I’m not a racist at all. But he said I was and then he shot me in the back. “He asked me did it hurt?’ I said ‘No’. Then he shot me in my leg. Then he asked me to kiss the other lad’s feet. I said ‘No’ again, but he was reloading the gun.