Heroic boxers detained man until the police arrived
A Hackney boxing club which has been supported by Hollywood star Elizabeth Taylor and Prince Philip recently foiled a child snatching attempt thanks to the quick thinking of some of its members.
Boxers from the Pedro Boxing Club in Rushmore Road, Clapton, were alerted to a commotion outside the club and ran out to find a man in a car allegedly attempting to abduct a young girl who was walking alongside her mother on June 13, just before midday.
The athletes, who were preparing for a match that day, grabbed the man and detained him until Hackney police arrived.
Nasreen Halim, who was at the boxing club that day, said: “It was lucky that the boys were there to stop this man.
“Understandably they were all very angry that this was happening, but they managed to just sit on the man until police arrived.”
A police spokesman said: “Officers from Hackney were called to reports of an altercation outside a youth club in Rushmore Road.
“A 36-year-old man had been detained at the location by members of the public.
“On arrival of officers, a man was arrested on suspicion of assault, attempted abduction and driving offences and taken to a local police station.
“He has subsequently been bailed to appear at a London police station on a date in late July.”
Pedro youth club was founded in 1929 by Katharine Elliot, who later became Baroness Elliot of Harwood.
Her friendship with Hollywood actress Elizabeth Taylor attracted much needed publicity to the club and led to the National Velvet and Antony and Cleopatra star becoming the first honorary president and donating £5,000 from the proceeds of a gala premiere of the film The Sandman in 1965.
Former British super-middleweight champion James Cook later took up the cause of the club and reopened it under new management in 2003. In 2007, he was awarded an MBE for his services to youth justice in Hackney.
The club featured in the TV show The Secret Millionaire in 2006 when businessman Ben Way went undercover as a youth worker and donated £20,000.
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