GAZETTE & HERALD: A 50-year-old disabled man from Calne is living in fear because ten youths are terrorising him.

Robbie Cooper, from Bishop Road, also said police should be reacting more quickly. He claims it took six months for an officer to meet with him over continued harassment.

Mr Cooper alleges the police had continually failed to respond to calls from him about youths pressing the buzzer to his flat, banging on his windows and swearing at him from outside.

Mr Cooper, who has suffered three heart attacks and is a diabetic, said the final straw came when he went to confront the youths three weeks ago and one pulled out a "Crocodile Dundee-style blade."

Mr Cooper also claimed he had been told by a phone switchboard operator when he called 999, "we just deal with life or death situations."

The former security guard said: "This has been happening for the last six months.

"We have security buzzers for entry to our flats and night after night, day after day, they ring the buzzer. We have the facility to switch it off and when I do they start banging on the windows.

"One time I went to say; 'why are you doing this' and there was roughly about ten or 12 of them.

"One pulled out a 13 to 14-inch blade and I didn't know what to do.

"One of them said, 'I tell you what, you want to get back in your flat because I have got a present to give you.'

"It was like a horror movie."

Mr Cooper said turning his back has made the situation worse despite the youths now being back at school.

He said every evening they knock on his windows or ring his buzzer as they walk home.

He said other people he knows have been harassed by the same youths .

He said he is now worried about his mobility scooter.

"Without this scooter I cannot get around so if they wreck it that's me trapped. I cannot go anywhere."

Mr Cooper said a policeman had visited him on Wednesday, April 13 to say they were looking to enforce an anti-social behaviour order on the youths.

He said: "I am hoping these people will get the message that they will have to keep away or else they will be in deep trouble.

"A couple of weeks ago I collapsed in my flat and the paramedics said I had been under so much pressure and I had had a diabetic collapse."

Sgt Peter Chamberlain from Calne Police said the antisocial behaviour was now being looked into.

"The area in question is near William Street and there have been seven arrests in the past six weeks there."

Sgt Chamberlain pointed to a new four-stage policy introduced in order to gain antisocial behaviour orders launched last month.

The offenders' parents will firstly receive a formal warning letter.

Secondly their parents will receive a final warning letter before a home visit is made by Sgt Chamberlain where an Acceptable Behaviour Contract (ABC) will be signed, to last six months.

If no improvement occurs then the police will take court action. Sgt Chamberlain believes this will increase the likelihood of the offender receiving an ASBO.