Call for tougher sentences

GRIMSBY'S Nunsthorpe estate has been slammed as a difficult place to live, where residents are too scared to report crime.

Residents have reacted furiously to the comments from a barrister, saying that there have been big improvements on the estate in recent years.

The comments from Gordon Stables came in the case Luke Broughton, who attacked a teenager who had assaulted him the week previously.

He said that Broughton had suffered at the hands of gangs on the estate, including that of Kurt Hatfield, who he later attacked, and had reacted in an "over the top" way.

But he said: "Living on the Nunsthorpe estate can be very difficult. It is a particularly notorious estate in Grimsby.

"The sort of trouble that Luke Broughton and his family were suffering in the run-up to this incident is not uncommon.

"It is also not uncommon that witnesses are very reluctant to come forward."

After hearing the case at Grimsby Crown Court, Recorder Paul Reid said the area was "notorious for violence, for trouble, and for decent people being reluctant to come forward and complain".