A TERRIFIED teenage girl who was indecently assaulted in the Lawns area by a gang of hooded males has told how she fled to a friend’s house to escape.

The 17-year-old was with her older sister near Windsor Road on Friday evening heading to the local One Stop shop, when the group tried to attract her attention before cycling over and manhandling her several times.

“It was as if I had been trapped, I have never felt so intimidated,” she told the Advertiser. “If it wasn’t for one of my friends living close by then I dread to think what they would have done.”

The incident comes as Lawns residents say they have seen an increase in antisocial behaviour.

The girl said she spotted the group looking at her so she looked away. But almost immediately she heard them calling and shouting.

Both the girls ignored them and carried on walking, but then the youths rode their bikes across the road and began following them before riding past several times, harassing them, touching the younger sister and hitting her on the bottom.

It was only when they ran to their friend’s house nearby that they escaped.

She said: “I felt disgusted that people actually think it’s okay to follow you around and then decide to touch you.

“Boys nowadays have no respect for girls, they had no right to lay a finger on me and I had no way of stopping them from doing it.”

Once they were safe they rang their mum and waited for their parents to come and pick them up because they didn’t feel safe in the street.

The teenagers mum said: “I was absolutely devastated that they had to endure being treated like that, no parent would ever want to receive a call of this nature.

“I think it’s got really bad that two girls can’t walk down a residential street at 6pm without being harassed.

“My daughter has commented so many times as to how intimidating these boys are that hang around at these shops. It must be just as scary for elderly people.

“Boys and young adult men should be brought up and taught it’s not okay to go around doing these things.”

The police were called and a patrol of the area was carried out.

A sales assistant at One Stop in Lawns, said he has noticed an increase in groups of males loitering outside the convenience store.

He said: “A lot of the time these groups of youngsters come into the shop shouting and screaming.

“There has definitely been an increase in anti-social behaviour, they all gather outside the shop pulling wheelies on their bikes on the path nearly hitting elderly residents, it’s not as safe.”

He added: “I think it is youths from the Parks area and Walcott coming over to Lawns because they know it is quieter with no police patrols.”

Wiltshire Police are asking for anyone who heard or saw a group of young males riding bikes in the area and may have seen anything suspicious at the time to phone 101.