Outside a picturesque semi bearing the name
Badgers Run, in the leafy Surrey village of Headley - population 643 - is a
half-drunk bottle of sparkling rosé.
The house (but not the wine) belongs to Anne
Leguen de Lacroix, clerk to the parish council.
It is not the only sign of raucous behaviour in
the wealthy hamlet.
Neighbouring gardens and pathways are strewn not
just with empty bottles (champagne, cognac, cherry wine) but more shocking
detritus - including used condoms - the legacy of a riotous party which, as
unlikely as it might seem given the genteel setting, ended in death and mayhem a
week ago.
Police are still combing the vicinity for
evidence, which is why the debris hasn’t been cleared away.
This is not just a story, though, about an event
that spiralled out of control with tragic consequences. Residents say it was a
scandal that the extravaganza, attracting hundreds of revellers, thought to be
mainly from the Caribbean community in Brixton, was allowed to go ahead.
At best, the police and council have been accused
of disregarding the views of local people; at worst, of being afraid to turn
down the application for a drinks and entertainment licence due to political
correctness.
Either way, recent events have had a disastrous
effect on Headley.
The party in question, we now know, was
advertised on the internet with online flyers featuring a Jamaican rapper and a
scantily dressed woman, who referred to herself on social media as a ‘bad
b****’.
There was a mobile number to call for those who
wanted to attend the bash at a then-undisclosed ‘Posh Location In The Hills’.
The secrecy echoed the tactics typically used by
organisers of illegal raves in disused warehouses in the Eighties and Nineties.
Where do you think that ‘posh location’ turned
out to be? In a bungalow — next to the historic parish church of St Mary The
Virgin, just up the lane from Miss Lacroix.
Could there have been a less suitable setting for
the event last Sunday?
To the unsuspecting folk of Headley, among them
many retired professionals, it must have seemed like the entire population of
South London was descending on the village in convoys of flash cars (BMWs,
Mercedes, Porches) and at least one hired coach.
All afternoon and late into the night, crowds of
half-naked young women in G-string bikinis, hot pants and heels spilled out of
the vehicles near the newly-refurbished hall, where the WI meet, before
teetering past Badgers Run and the home of Miss Lacroix’s neighbour,
76-year-old Celia Stewart, before disappearing into the aforementioned bungalow
beside the vicarage.
How many guests were crammed into the property?
100? 200?
It was nearer 500, actually, which meant
partygoers almost outnumbered villagers.
Soon the earth began to shake with the thump of
reggae music. Driveways were blocked by double (even triple) parked cars in the
main, narrow lane running through Headley (‘it looked like Piccadilly Circus,’
said a villager).
Drivers were ‘unpleasant and rude’ when asked to
move. One local was almost run over in the ensuing chaos.
Then, in the early hours, those residents who had
managed to get some sleep through the thunderous, incessant din were woken by
the sound of gunshots and a police helicopter flying overhead.
In the garden of the bungalow a man lay dead and
a woman was in hospital after being blasted in the leg.
Witnesses said several guests were suspected of
being Yardies, a term for Jamaican-born gangsters originally from the backyards
of Kingston, the capital of the Caribbean island.
Detectives from Scotland Yard’s Trident unit, which
specialises in gang-related crime, are now helping the Surrey force with the
investigation.
Who would ever have predicted that Headley,
nestled in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty not far from Epsom racecourse,
would one day find itself at the centre of such an inquiry?
Among the small number of crimes reported in
Headley since January is the theft of a water feature from a garden.
No comments:
Post a Comment