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Girl gang targeted my Charlotte and tried to blow her up
Benedict Moore-Bridger, Evening Standard15.05.08
The mother of a teenager whose home was blown up in a suspected bomb blast today blamed London's escalating "gang culture" for the devastating attack.
Charlotte Anderson, 17, was badly burned in the explosion which ripped through three houses and killed her neighbour.
The blast is thought to have been caused by a gang of girls and could be the result of a feud over a boy.
Hours before the blast in Stanley Road, Harrow, Charlotte had dialled 999 to report that a group of girls were causing trouble outside her house. A purple liquid had also been poured through her letter-box.
Today her mother Elaine Leonard, 41, revealed the teenager had been attacked by the gang before. She said she could now be scarred for life after the blast last Wednesday night.
Mrs Leonard said: "I blame gang culture. These kids are out of control. They try to settle things with knives, guns and now bombs.
"Charlotte has been having bother with these lasses for a while. They'd attacked her once before.
"On the day of the explosion she found some purple liquid had been poured through her door. She thought it was a stink bomb and tried to clean it up.
"Later that night she was on the phone when there was a massive explosion and the ceiling fell down all around her.
"The next thing she remembers was screaming for help and a man dragging her out of the rubble.
"You look at the street and there's nothing left.
"I don't know how Charlotte survived. When I saw her I didn't recognise her. She was burned all over her face and body.
"She is a lovely, bonny lass but now she could be scarred for life and she's in a lot of pain.
"She'll turn 18 in a few weeks. She should have been having the time of her life but instead she could still be in hospital.
"These are just lasses but they have tried to blow up my daughter."
Three homes in the Victorian terrace were demolished in the blast.
Charlotte's neighbour, 26-year-old businessman Emmad Qureshi from Pakistan was killed by a wound to his neck from falling debris and his friend, who has not been named, was injured.
Detectives first suspected that the explosion was caused by a faulty gas main.
However, on inspection, engineers could not find any fault with the gas supply.
She was attending college and was planning to undertake a child-care course. She also made regular visits to the North-East to see her mother, her sister Gemma, 21, and her brother Stephen, 22.
Mrs Leonard has kept a constant vigil by her daughter's bedside in the Chelsea and Westminster burns unit where she is being treated.
She said: "I've begged her to come back to Newcastle but she's determined not to let this drive her out of London. Apart from all this I've never known her be in trouble.
"She walks away from this kind of thing. She was working hard to get the qualifications to do a child-care course and wanted to go to university.
"We may have lived apart but have always kept in touch. I feel so lucky that she is alive but the girls who did this need to be brought to justice."
