A quiet neighborhood in Hanwell, west London, has been shaken by a brazen act of vandalism, as masked individuals targeted a home with motor oil and graffiti in a chilling nighttime attack.
Residents are increasingly concerned that this incident is linked to the notorious Chinese triad gangs, given its resemblance to a series of similar attacks across London associated with the criminal underworld.
The once peaceful suburban community, where residents pride themselves on their close-knit relationships and uneventful lifestyle, now finds itself embroiled in a mystery. The targeted house, believed to be unoccupied, has become the center of swirling suspicions and urgent inquiries.
Captured by domestic security cameras and later obtained by the Daily Mail, the footage reveals two individuals, their faces obscured by caps and masks, defacing the property at approximately 1:40 a.m. on a Tuesday.
The vandals, undeterred by the late hour, emblazoned the phrase “Brothel 23” in vivid red paint multiple times on both the house itself and the surrounding walls, even marring a neighbor’s white car in the process.
They can be seen spraying the phrase ‘Brothel 23’, referring to the house number, in bright red paint at least six times on surrounding walls – and even on the side of a neighbour’s white car.
Footage shows one in a red coat sloshing thick black oil from a small bucket over the front of the house, leaving it dripping with a layer of grease that will be difficult to remove, before the pair scarper.
A mobile number was also sprayed onto one of the sidewalls, but there was no answer when we dialled it. There was also no sign of life when we knocked on the door of 23.
A vandal sprays ‘brothel’ in bright red paint on the side of a house in Hanwell, west London
The pair also sloshed a bucket of motor oil over the house before running off down the street
The front door was left dripping in grease, and there was no answer when the Daily Mail knocked
The vandals also targeted a neighbour’s car, and it took him half a day to clean off
Whilst the attack came out of the blue for residents of the road, they recalled noticing a change in activity at number 23 in recent weeks.
Multiple neighbours had seen ‘pink and red flashing lights’ in the rooms of the house at odd hours of the morning, and the ‘curtains going up and down’.
A well-liked family moved out in December, and since then ‘two little women’ have been spotted outside the property – but these new figures have kept to themselves.
All this poses a mystery for the landlord, who believed his house to have been empty since Christmas while builders carried out renovations. Workmen were most recently seen entering the house on Friday afternoon.
An associate of the landlord, who lives on the road, told the Mail: ‘It was rented out to a very respectable Iraqi family with three or four children until just before Christmas.
‘After that, the landlord got one of his friends to bring in builders to work on improvements inside – they have been coming and going.
‘So we have no idea why the house has been targeted, it’s very strange. We need to find out if anything has been happening in there since the tenant family moved out.’
A neighbour said: ‘Things changed at that house a couple of months ago. Rubbish started building up in the garden.’ The front garden was this week strewn with litter, including half-empty plastic bottles.
Residents of the street reported noticing unusual activity in the house, but had no idea why it was targeted
A layer of black grease stains the front of the house, and one of the brothel graffiti marks can be seen on the front wall
‘Brothel’ was sprayed onto at least six surfaces, including walls, the pavement and a car
Waking up to the ominous sight on Tuesday morning, neighbours urged each other to check their security footage for any evidence of the vandals.
One person, living across the road from the targeted house, told us: ‘We were all talking about it on the WhatsApp group chat, but no one had any idea why it happened.
‘It’s obviously quite concerning, and we’ve seen articles about similar attacks linked to Chinese gangs. There was one nearby last year, in Ealing.
‘I looked at my doorbell footage and saw two guys in caps walking down the road at about twenty to two in the morning. Earlier on there had been a guy in a hoodie. It was unusual – normally there’s nobody on the road at that time.’
Another neighbour, whose front wall was sprayed with the brothel slogan, said the episode had frightened her children.
She said: ‘It’s half term at the moment so the kids are at home, and they have been very scared by this. They don’t understand it, but neither do we.
‘This is a nice neighbourhood, lots of people know each other, and nothing like this ever happens.
‘I was friends with the wife of the family that lived there, but they moved out. Since then, I’ve seen two women around the place, but I haven’t spoken to them. I don’t know if they were living there, they keep to themselves.’
And the man whose car was emblazoned with ‘Brothel 23’ spent the first half of Tuesday morning cleaning it off. ‘It is very frustrating, such a waste of time,’ he said.
Whilst strange activity had been noticed, none of the residents of the street ever suspected the house was being used as a brothel – and most are highly sceptical of the idea. No evidence has surfaced to support the graffitied accusations.
Another theory among residents suggested the attack was a form of intimidation in the midst of a financial dispute of some kind.
Whilst the motive behind the attack remains unclear, it is impossible not to recognise similarities with recent incidents around London, and indeed the country.
Red paint daubed on a house on Chingford Road in Walthamstow last year
A man smashes a window with a hammer during a night time attack in Acton in March
Beginning in 2023, houses and businesses have been targeted with similarly aggressive graffiti, often splashes of red paint or oil, and sometimes attacked with hammers.
Walthamstow saw a particularly large number of attacks in the first half of last year, but examples have also been seen in Liverpool, Birmingham and Manchester.
In almost all of these cases, the word ‘brothel’ was scrawled onto the walls and directed at a specific building – just like in Hanwell this week.
Following intense speculation last year, criminologist Oliver Chan linked the incidents to an intimidation tactic used by triad gangs to enforce debt repayments.
This theory was seemingly supported by footage obtained by London Centric, which showed some of the attackers speaking Mandarin, and reports that the residents of some targeted buildings were known to have come from China or Hong Kong.
David McKelvey, a former Met police officer who specialises in investigating organised crime gangs, said the wave of attacks could mark ‘the beginning of a gang war where people try to take power’.
He also warned that the Metropolitan Police lacked specialist knowledge of the capital’s Chinese-language criminal scene – which is run by rival ancient groups, known as triads.
It has not been possible to determine the nationality of the vandals in the footage from Hanwell, and the house has no known links to China.
The attack on Tuesday morning was reported to the Metropolitan Police, who were approached for comment.
