Shocking pictures reveal a newbuild estate left in ruins after a ‘teenager’ who looked to be ‘about 15 years old’ hijacked a JCB and rammed into several homes.
The newly-constructed council housing in Darlington, Durham, was left looking like a demolition site after it was driven into on Sunday evening, leaving seven properties seriously damaged.
Residents told MailOnline they saw ‘a young lad’ driving around in the digger and assumed he was ‘nicking it’, only to then hear the houses being smashed down.
The Neasham Road estate is a new housing development by the council, aimed at providing affordable housing.
The finished project will consist of 150 homes, some of which are already completed and inhabited by families, while others are nearing completion. However, the recent incident, which has prompted a police investigation, could disrupt this timeline.
A woman who lives in the Neasham Road estate told of how she rang the police as soon as she saw what looked to be a teenager driving the JCB.
She said: ‘We saw the digger out the back here. He was right out the back of our fences, we thought he was going to come through there. But luckily he didn’t.
‘I was watching telly and I saw through the window and thought “that’s a bit strange that the workmen are around the back at this time of night.”
Footage which circulated online showed the damage left behind, with bricks collapsing after being rammed into with a digger
The video shows large holes in the sides of houses, with debris all over the ground
Images taken from above show the extent of damage caused by the incident last Sunday
A row of newbuild houses were left in ruins after a ‘teenager’ was seen driving into them with a JCB
‘Then I thought “hold on it’s a weekend, they don’t work weekends.”
‘So I went out and spoke to the neighbour next door and she said “are you seeing what I’m seeing?”
‘I said “Yeah, it isn’t the workmen is it?” and she went “no”.
‘And then as I phoned the police the digger disappeared but then we saw him at the back where those houses are.
‘Well at this point we couldn’t see but we heard it. You could hear the smashing, it was horrible.
‘But there was nothing we could do apart from call the police.
‘We thought he looked about 14 or 15. It was just a young lad.
‘He wasn’t a man, he was a teenage child.’
The woman lives on the side of the estate that is completed, while beyond the fencing and some green, the remaining homes are still under construction – which is where the incident involving the JCB took place.
The JCB was initially being driven around on empty land behind the occupied homes, but was then driven round the back to the houses on the construction site before being rammed into the newbuilds.
The council are now said to be awaiting a decision from structural engineers as to whether any of the homes need to be demolished as a result of the damage.
The woman explained: ‘The woods behind here went on fire just before it happened.
Residents in the part of the site that is completed and let out said they witnessed ‘a young lad’ in the digger on Sunday evening
People viewing the footage online speculated that ‘someone didn’t get paid’ and carried out the rampage in retaliation
One resident told of how she had seen ‘a young boy’ in the digger and called police straight away
Behind the houses, which are still closed off for construction, are rows of houses on the estate which are already occupied with families
‘We heard a load of children over the back and the fire brigade were over there putting a fire out.
‘And then the next thing I saw the digger at the back of the fence and I thought what the hell is going on.
‘He didn’t look very old at all. I thought he was with the group of kids because you could hear the kids shouting when he was in the digger. I presume they were shouting to him.
‘We thought he’d driven it on to the main road because we couldn’t see him.
‘And then we saw the flashing lights in between those houses back there.
‘You could just see the digger and hear the noise.
‘And then we saw him go off that way on foot. But the police hadn’t turned up by then.
‘I was on the phone for about 10 minutes with the police. I was trying to give him a running commentary of what was going on.
‘I said “Jesus Christ you can literally hear something being smashed.”
‘I said “it sounds like he’s ramming, I’m surmising but he’s ramming into the houses.”
There has been speculation on social media that the damage was carried out as a revenge attack by contractors in a row over payment.
The resident commented: ‘Well that’s the thing. I thought well a child really wouldn’t do that much damage.
‘They’d probably do damage, but I wouldn’t have thought like this. Why would they destroy seven houses?
The site is a new housing development by Darlington Borough Council. Some houses are already completed and occupied, while others are still under construction
An overhead view of the newbuilds, to be used as affordable housing
‘So it does sort of fit in that somebody hasn’t been paid, and they’ve paid somebody to go and destroy it.
‘At the end of the day, if that’s the case, then they should’ve paid that lad’s wages, and they wouldn’t have had all this.
‘Because there are crazy people out there who would take revenge like that.
‘He could have taken it out on any of us really. We’re lucky it wasn’t these houses with people living in them.
‘There’s crazy people that would have gone into the houses here, and there are a lot of children.
‘He wasn’t a man, he definitely was a teenage child.
‘You’re dubious of what you say or calling the police because then if they know where you live are they going to come and attack you?
‘The estate isn’t turning out to be what I expected it to be.’
Another couple who live in the estate also said they witnessed the scene from their windows.
They said: ‘We looked out the window and saw someone stole the digger truck.
‘Obviously it’s a Sunday so you don’t really expect the construction workers to be out, they never work the Sundays.’
‘So we thought someone had just nicked one and were going to take it off to pinch, but obviously then we’ve seen what damage they’ve done with it.
‘We just saw the digger go past the house but then obviously he’s gone round back there and destroyed all those houses.’
Durham Police have said there is an investigation underway, and are appealing for any information from the public
Neasham Road is a council development which, when completed, will be comprised of 150 homes
A video of the aftermath went viral on social media, with it generating more than 9.6k likes and 3.2k shares.
Those online speculated that the incident was linked to a row over money.
One person commented ‘Who hasn’t been paid?’, while another wrote ‘Looks a main contractor hasn’t payed a subcontractor’.
However, this has not been confirmed by police nor the council.
A Durham Police spokesperson said: An investigation is underway after several houses were damaged in Darlington.
‘Police were called to the new build estate on Hurworth Moor, just off Neasham Road, at 8.50pm on Sunday (April 27) following reports that a male was driving a JCB into unoccupied houses.
‘On arrival at the scene, officers found seven houses had been damaged, along with the JCB.
‘An investigation was launched and enquiries into the incident are ongoing.’
Darlington Borough Council said they could not comment on the details of the incident as it is the subject of a police investigation.
However, Cllr Matthew Roche, Darlington Borough Council’s cabinet member for health and housing, said: ‘The Neasham Road site is part of our ambitious programme to build hundreds of much-needed social homes and it’s disappointing, to say the least, that this has happened.
‘The council is working closely with Police as they investigate. We would urge anyone with any information to pass it on to the Police.’
