A family have complained of being terrorised by gangs of youths in a bizarre vendetta over housing.
The Elletts say they have been targeted because they were allocated a council bungalow which at least 15 other families on their estate wanted to move into.
They have told police they groups of teenagers have laid seige to their bungalow - with the knowledge and approval of parents across Whitehawk, Brighton.
Julie and Bryan Ellet, of Whitehawk Way, say gangs of youths have subjected them to physical and verbal abuse and damaged their home and car so many times they have installed their own 24-hour CCTV.
Mrs Ellett, 49, said:"People in Whitehawk see it happening and they're too frightened to come out and say anything. I don't sleep most of the time because of this.
"I am stuck here twenty-four seven. I can't go anywhere. I can't even sit in the garden. I am trapped. It isn't doing me any good."
Mrs Ellett, who is housebound because she is disabled with diabetes, arthritis and lung and kidney disease and is hooked up to a ventilator, said she is scared to sit in her garden because of the intimidation.
She said most of the violence was carried out by youths but their parents knew what they were doing. She has seen them target other neighbours, including another woman who does not leave the house.
She said: "They're laughing that their children are terrorising this woman."
Whitehawk recently hit the headlines when The Argus revealed that Asda had ceased deliveries to the area because its drivers and vehicles were being attacked.
Following a public outcry, those deliveries have been reinstated but the Ellett said things on the estate are as bad as ever.
Mrs Ellett said she had seen youths, who were often drunk, throwing stones at buses.
Mr Ellett, 57, was recently set upon by a gang of teenagers, leaving him with a large bruise on his face.
He said: "I was going down to my daughter's place to pick up my grandson's tablets. This lad across the road was shouting and swearing.
"I stopped, turned round, looked back at him and said: 'What are you going to do?' I turned round and carried on walking. All over a sudden three lads came running down from behind and I got punched in the eye."
Over the years the couple's doors and windows have been kicked in. Their daughter, now 29, was assaulted and punched in the head and her son was threatened with a penknife. She lives nearby but asked not to be named as she recently had her windows smashed and is desperate to move away from the area.
Mr and Mrs Ellett's car has had paint sprayed on it, wing mirrors have been smashed and someone tampered with the wheels and tried to force the lock.
One time a neighbour found a youth in a hooded top outside their home with bottles in his hands, poised to break the windows. The neighbour shouted until he went away.
Mr Ellett said: "There is an awful lot of good people in Whitehawk. It is a shame because it makes it bad for everyone. You just get these certain families who cause trouble.
"If your face doesn't fit here, you don't fit here."
The Elletts believe they have been targeted because 15 families wanted the council bungalow they have lived in since they moved from Portslade in 1999.
They were given the house because it is suitable for a wheelchair.
The Elletts, who have two children aged 16 and 17 living at home, have been told they cannot move because there are no vacant adapted properties.
A Brighton and Hove City Council spokeswoman said: "We take issues of harassment extremely seriously. The council has been working with the families involved and the police and are continuing to investigate the allegations."
Inspector Steve Curry, who heads the east Brighton neighbourhood policing team, said since November crime in Whitehawk had significantly reduced, with a 72 per cent drop in stone throwing. Anti-social behaviour orders have been served against two of the worst culprits.
He said: "We take any reports of harassment and bullying very seriously."
He added he was not personally aware of the Elletts' reports but asked for details to be sent to him.
http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/localnews/display.var.1735937.0.family_under_seige_from_yob_vendetta.php
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