Residents living near the house at the centre of the murder investigation have experienced disruption, but understand officers do ‘need to do their job’
19:29, 17 Feb 2026Updated 19:30, 17 Feb 2026
Residents said those living next to the investigation must be ‘suffering'(Image: Leicester Mercury)
People living near the house at the centre of the ongoing murder investigation in Leicester have commented on the disruption caused by police who continue to work in the area.
It’s been just over a week since officers descended on Broad Avenue in Evington as part of a major murder investigation amid the search for missing 60-year-old Gary Piatek. Officers have been at a property in the street since Tuesday, February 10.
Since then, eight people charged in connection with the incident appeared in Leicester Crown Court yesterday (February 16). Two men are to stand trial later this year after being charged with the murder of Mr Piatek.
Residents living near the property in Broad Avenue spoke to Leicestershire Live about the disruption caused by police throughout their investigation.
Dianna lives across the road from the scene. She said: “They left the generator to their portable station on last night until 11.20pm. I could hear it while in my bedroom with my windows shut.”
“I know it sounds really petty, but you can hear it going on throughout the day and at night when there are only one or two officers in the car outside of the house – you don’t need it on surely.”
Dianna said the first couple of nights the generator would be turned off around 7pm, but was recently kept on past 11pm, which she said was “really annoying”. She added: “You can also hear the drilling or the jackhammer noise while they are at the site, too, which is irritating, but they need to do their job, I guess.”
“If I can hear them working from across the street, imagine living next door to it. The neighbours must be suffering.”
Officers were seen using a jack hammer in the backyard of the house today (Tuesday, February 17)(Image: Samuel Kalantzis / Leicester Mercury)
Other residents living slightly further away from Broad Avenue said the main disruption they faced was caused on the first day of the investigation on Tuesday, February 10. Since then they have reportedly had no issues with the police activity.
Mohammed Mayet, who lives a bit further down the street from the investigation, said: “It’s the first time in the 15 years I’ve lived here that I’ve seen this much police activity. The shocking part of it for me is that it’s happening so close to home.” “I wouldn’t say I’ve been affected by the disruption since the first day. It was only in the early days of the whole thing that traffic was bad because officers were blocking the road outside of the house. Since then it’s been fine.”
Despite not living next to the scene of the police activity, Saifor, who lives in the area, said he feels bad for his neighbours who live closer to the investigation. He said: “I’ve not been disrupted at all. I mean, the police even dropped off a flyer warning us what will be going on, so it’s all fine by me.”
“We have to consider that it’s all going on a couple of streets away so we haven’t felt the police’s presence much. You do feel for those living next to the investigation, though, with the drilling and everything going on. They must have an issue with it, unlike us, which is totally understandable.”
“I think even those living closer to it though, realise that this is going to take time and we just have to let the police do what they need to do.”
According to Leicestershire Police, there’s still a lot of work to be done as detectives and crime scene investigators will remain at the scene in Broad Avenue “over the coming weeks”.
Officers said this is to ensure a thorough investigation and evidence gathering takes place.
Officers arriving at the scene this morning (Image: Leicester Mercury)
Speaking about the officers potentially remaining in the area for the foreseeable future, Moira, who lives on the next road down from Broad Avenue said: “I don’t see why anyone would be annoyed with the officers currently.
“They’ve put tape up around the bit they need and no traffic is being held up anymore so they can stay as long as they need to.”
“I’ve heard people making complaints saying it’s taking too long but they need to realise these things take time and you cannot make any assumptions.”
“Personally I’d rather justice is carried out correctly over a long time, rather than it being done wrong in a short time, so let the police do their job and take their time.”
There has been no exact indication as to when Leicestershire Police will finish their investigation in Broad Avenue. Anyone with information relating to the case is being asked to contact police on 101, quoting incident number 221 of 9 February 2026.
