A 14-year-old girl suffered a black eye after she was 'attacked by a member of security staff' at Bootle fair.
The teen's mum, who wishes to remain anonymous, said she received the "worst phone call" of her life - telling her that her daughter had been "assaulted". She rushed to the scene to collect her daughter and find out how she had received a black eye.
Officers were called to reports of a fight at the event, on Acorn Way, at around 8.05pm on Monday, April 11. Security staff claimed a gang of teens and young people gathered outside the fair and challenged them and a witness at the scene believed the violence was triggered by a row between girls on the bumper cars.
READ MORE: Chaos at the fun fair as bricks thrown at police and schoolgirl arrested
The mum told the ECHO: "My daughter and her friend were thrown out of the fair, now I don't know the reason behind why, and I do not condone it, she is now grounded for that reason. But what I don’t condone either, is grown men hitting these kids.
"My kid was knocked to the ground by a full force punch off a man who works at the fair. Her eye is terrible, she fell back and banged her head.
"You can see at the end of one of the videos that he punches her, and his colleagues are trying to drag him back to stop him from hitting the kids. He had already pushed my daughter's friend to the ground before he punched her."
She added: "I don’t know how she got out of there with the marks she did, because it was very violent everywhere. The kids went into a riot because two of them had just been attacked by adults, of course that is going to cause a conflict.
"The fair shouldn’t be open. There were about 600 kids there, and it has all escalated really quickly, there shouldn’t have been that many in there.
"One of them asked for a £7 refund, just joking about it because they were asked to leave. But they think they can lay their hands on children, they can’t do that, it is absolutely disgusting.
"The kids were assaulted by five men, they were all protecting each other."
Merseyside Police arrested two people following a disturbance at the fair. At around 8.05pm they received a report that a female youth had been assaulted by a male youth at Bootle Fair.
In a statement Merseyside Police said: "It was reported that security staff at the Fair ejected the male. Following this it was reported that a large group of youths gathered outside the Fair to challenge security staff.
"Police attended to disperse the group and bricks and bottles were thrown at officers. Two police vehicles were damaged during the incident and an officer suffered minor injuries.
"A 15-year-old female from Runcorn was arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police officer, criminal damage to a police vehicle and a public order offence. A 21-year-old woman was arrested on suspicion of criminal damage to a police vehicle. Both were taken into custody and have been questioned by police.
"Three youths reported that they had been assaulted by security staff during the incident and sustained minor injuries. Extensive enquiries into the incident are ongoing and anyone with any information is asked to contact police."
A Dispersal Zone is being introduced in Bootle today, Tuesday 12 April, following a disturbance in the Acorn Way area yesterday evening. The order starts at 6pm today, lasting until 6pm on Thursday 14 April and officers will be in the area to deal with any incidents.
The Dispersal Zone covers the area inside the map bounded by Marsh Lane, Hawthorne Road, Linacre Lane and Stanley Road. The order comes under Section 35 of the Anti-Social Behaviour & Policing Act 2014, which gives police officers and police community support traffic officers powers to direct people they suspect are causing or likely to cause crime, nuisance or anti-social behaviour to members of the public to leave a designated area and not return for up to 48 hours.
Under the legislation, officers have the power to seize any item, including vehicles, used in the commission of anti-social behaviour. Should a person who has previously been directed to leave the area return, an offence would be committed, which they may ultimately be arrested for.
The order has been introduced following reports of anti-social behaviour, violence and criminal damage at Bootle Fair yesterday evening. Community Policing Inspector Ray Mavrakakis said: "We have proactively put this Dispersal Zone in place following a disturbance at Bootle Fair yesterday evening.
"The order isn't designed to impact upon the vast majority of law-abiding members of the community but to deal with any issues, prevent offences from taking place and ensure residents and businesses are not subjected to any anti-social or criminal behaviour. Our enquiries into incidents at Bootle Fair last night remain ongoing and we’d urge anyone with any information to come forward."
Anyone who wishes to report anti-social or criminal behaviour can contact @MerPolCC, 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111. Always call 999 in an emergency
