The mum of a teenager who was stabbed while walking to college has told how she feared he was dead.

Bradley Halton, 18, was stabbed four times in the back of his leg with what is believed to be a screwdriver on his way through Central Park at about 9am on Tuesday last week.

He was pounced on from behind by a group of five men near the old rugby club, with one grabbing him around the throat and another clutching him around the waist while the others kicked and shouted at him.

Bradley’s mum Donna said she was “devastated” when Bradley’s girlfriend broke the news to her in a phone call.

“It’s the worst phone call any mum could get,” she said.

“When I found out he’d been stabbed, all sorts of things went through my mind – I thought he was lying dead somewhere.”

Bradley, who had been on his way to Barking and Dagenham College where he is taking a painting and decorating course, plugged his wounds with tissue

because he didn’t want to miss an exam he

was due to take that morning.

It was only after he told his girlfriend, who called an ambulance, that he received medical attention at the Royal London Hospital.

Doctors x-rayed the wounds in his right thigh and stitched him up. He is now recovering at home, close to the park where he was attacked.

Donna said: “He is fine now, just very sore, and he’s struggling to sit down because he’s in pain.

“The fact it happened at that time in morning is very frightening.”

Officers would like to hear from anyone who saw either the victim or the group of men, described as Asian, in the Central Park area between 9am and 9.30am on September 16.

n You can call Barking and Dagenham CID by dialling 101. Alternatively, you can phone Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111, quoting reference 5115029/14

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