Boy hit in face by pipe

Press, 2 June 1980, Page 4

Boy hit in face by pipe

PA ' Wellington Michael Lovell, aged 11, underwent surgery yesterday afternoon after a senseless act by two youths, which resulted in his face being badly smashed. He had been walking along a road in Seatoun earlier in the day when a I.6kg piece of pipe was flung from the top of a 30m bank by one of two youths. The pipe bounced off the road, and hit Michael full in the face, smashing his teeth, splitting his cheek from his eye to his mouth, and breaking a bone below his eye. He and his older brother Paul'had been walking near Burnham Wharf after a morning spent fishing. They saw two youths, aged about 16 or 17, on the bank high above them but paid little attention until they heard a shout. . Paul said he saw the nietal coming, but too late to warn Michael', who was lifted into the* air and thrown several metres by the impact. Michael was taken by ambulance to Wellington Hospital and .the police searched for the two youths, but without success. Michael’s condition was reported to be satisfactory last evening.