[Madhatter]

You mean like this

The managing director of an international company has told the Herald why he punched a 16-year-old hooligan - and why he would be prepared to do it again.

Linda Ram

Dean White says the teenage tearaway and his gang had leapt over a five-foot fence to intimidate and hurl abuse at him, his wife and two daughters on the drive of their Fazeley home.

"I felt my family was in danger," Mr White, the boss of a firm in Coventry, said.

"I don't regret my actions and if similar circumstances arose again, I would do the same thing, because in a situation like that you are under threat."

The 45-year-old then found himself at the centre of a police investigation after officers caught the youth, who then said he wanted to press charges against Mr White.

"I stood up to these morons and yet I was the one being investigated. My teenage daughters were on the drive and also being subjected to very violent behaviour - we were all very frightened."

The nightmare unfolded one night last week when a gang of boys and girls - said to have clearly been drinking - were being rowdy in the street.

As Mr White also had his three-month-old grandson in the house, he and his wife went outside to ask them to move along.

But they were met with a volley of abuse, foul language and threatening behaviour.

Five of the gang scaled the fence which protects the family home and jumped onto their drive.

"It was five on one. They had backed me up to the front door and one of them was right in my face. He would have hit me, so I punched him.

"I was exercising my right to defend myself, my wife, my children, my grandson and my property.

"I would be gobsmacked if they said there were still charges to answer."

Mr White feels more should be done about antisocial behaviour before things get out of hand.

"Enough is enough!" he added.

"If the council and the police do not clamp down on this sort of unruly behaviour, then it will force vigilantes onto our streets."

The youth later dropped the charges against Mr White, who is now unlikely to be prosecuted.

Police say they will be looking into the problems in the area caused by youths.