Sean Prescott had been accused of causing grievous bodily harm to a 12-year-old girl, by kicking her and breaking her collar bone and knocking her unconscious.

He had also been facing six charges of common assault against other boys and girls in the gang who had repeatedly played knock-a-door run on his front door. Prescott, aged 25, of Argyle Street, Hindley, was visibly relieved as the jury at Bolton Crown Court returned not guilty verdicts on each of the seven charges.

Speaking after his trial, he exclusively told The Journal how he ended up feeling a "prisoner in his own home". He said he had wanted to protect his young family and "just wanted the nightmare to stop". He said: "I don't agree with vigilantes. But when nobody's helping you out, it's hard to know what to do. I have been trying to protect my family and property from abuse." And he criticised the police for not taking the harassment seriously. He said: "The police have a two hour response time by which time they have gone. These children ought to have been told off. I went out to tell them off. The police had done nothing and I just wanted it all to stop. The usual response I get from the police is that it is usual childish behaviour. But it's not normal behaviour." He described to the Journal how children would constantly harass him by knocking on his door every day. They would throw stones against his windows and even scrape on the side of his house with a metal bar, terrifying his partner and waking up their 20-month-old baby. Groups of teenagers would also congregate on the side street by his home, drinking alcohol, urinating against his house and throwing bottles and cans into the backyard of his terraced house. During his trial, Prescott said that he had been angry when his front door flew open after the children banged on it playing knock-a-door run. He was upset because he said his young baby could have been behind the heavy door. He also said someone had thrown an iced drink at his window during the incident last April. One girl taunted him to chase them and he set off running to catch her. They ran up the back streets and he admitted barging past the stragglers in his bid to get at the girl who had taunted him. He denied kicking anyone and said he had not pulled anyone's hair or punched any of the children. It emerged during the trial that officers had also visited the area following complaints from another resident, Frank Johnston, who had suffered repeated incidents by children at his house. Mr Prescott said he moved to Argyle Street from his parents' home in the Wigan Road area of Leigh just over two years ago because he thought it would be a safe place to bring up a family.

He told The Journal: "I moved here because it was a nice area. The next thing all this happened. For the first six months it was just knocking and running. Then last April and March time it was a solid month. Every single day something would happen. Why they picked on me I don't know."

And he even had to suffer the indignity of a bail condition that he could not leave his house at night. Even then there was more knocking on his door but he could not even tell the children off.

He said: "It was like being a prisoner in my own home. It was just unbelievable."

And other neighbours say they have also been targeted by children "playing" knock-a-door run and added that the street was a haunt of gangs of youths.

One 64-year-old woman said: "They don't come in twos and threes, they come in 30s and 40s. There's only so much a person can take. We've had kids knocking on doors. We just tend to ignore it. Because if you go out to them it's worse."

The woman and her 63-year-old husband, who lived in the street for 40 years, said things were now so bad they were trying to move away into a council-bungalow.