Moment Patrick Hutchinson's 'proud' daughter celebrates as her father appears on TV to discuss protest heroics

Stephanie Cockroft15 June 2020

This is the moment the 10-year-old daughter of Black Lives Matter protester Patrick Hutchinson celebrated excitedly with friends as her father appeared on TV to talk about his heroics.

Mr Hutchinson, a personal trainer and grandfather, made global headlines after a picture emerged of him rescuing an injured white man from harm during violent protests in central London on Saturday.

An interview was aired with Mr Hutchinson on Channel 4 on Sunday , in which he spoke about his hope for "equality for all", and modestly played down compliments about being a "hero".

His daughter Sidena, 10, seen right in the video, was filmed jumping up and down and shouting with her friends Kai’Yonna and Chela when she saw her father's face on TV.

Irene Danso, Kai’Yonna’s mother, filmed the moment and uploaded it to her daughter’s Twitter account, AKAKiddz, with the clip being shared hundreds of thousands of times.

Ms Danso, from Croydon in south London, said her phone had barely stopped vibrating with messages.

She added that Sidena was shocked at her father’s newfound celebrity status but was incredibly proud of him.

Mr Hutchinson carries the injured man to safety, near Waterloo station, London
REUTERS

Mr Hutchinson formed a group with four of his friends, who are part of London-based close protection group Ark Security, to protect young Black Lives Matter protesters from getting caught up in the violence at the protests.

They took it upon themselves to be the “overseers” at the protest, to make sure those who needed help were taken safely to emergency service workers.

The incident was captured on camera and hailed as a 'beautiful moment'
REUTERS

The group spotted a lone white man being dragged by young black protesters through a crowd and thrown on the steps near the Royal Festival Hall.

The image, captured by a photographer at the scene, was shared widely online and described as a "beautiful moment of humanity".

“His life was under threat so I just went and scooped him up, put him over my shoulder, and started marching towards the police with him,” Mr Hutchinson told Channel 4 News.

The white man did not speak during the interaction and the group have not spoken to or seen him since.

Mr Hutchinson said: “I just want equality for all of us. At the moment the scales are unfairly balanced and I just want things to be fair, for my children and my grandchildren.”

On becoming a national hero overnight, Mr Hutchinson said: "I was just the guy who was caught on camera with him on my shoulder, but all the guys were party to it.

"Without them protecting me, I would probably have got stampeded as well, underneath it. So it was a team effort."

Another member of the group, Pierre Noah, 47, a bodyguard and martial arts teacher from Croydon, described arriving outside Waterloo Station and witnessing the clashes between anti-racist and far-right protesters.

Mr Noah said: “They were going to beat him up and stamp on him.

“We wanted to save his life and save the Black Lives Matter campaign as well.”

Mr Noah said he wanted to save the lives of young black boys who could have been targeted by “hooligans” if anything had happened to the white man.

“We were ready to help anyone, no matter what their colour, it’s for the right purpose,” Mr Noah said.

Recalling the moment of chaos near Waterloo Bridge, Reuters photographer Dylan Martinez, who took the image, said he saw a black protester emerging from the violent scenes carrying an injured white man in a "fireman's lift" over his shoulder.

"I saw a skirmish and someone falling to the ground," Mr Martinez. After hearing someone say "that's not what we do", he said he suddenly saw a white man being carried on a black person's shoulders through the crowd.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in