Panic alarm saved Derry pensioner from attacker, say family

THE daughter of a woman whose eyes were taped shut and wrists bound during a burglary at her Derry home has said a panic alarm may have saved her mother from further harm.

The 88-year-old was attacked by a thug who forced his way into her home in Ballynasilloe Park on Tuesday morning around 11 am.

As he was putting duct tape around her face, eyes and hands, she was able to press her personal emergency alarm.

Her daughter told BBC News NI she had sustained bruising to her arm and back.

“She has had some bruising from him hurting her arm and some bruising on her back from him throwing her on her sofa,” she said.

“She was trying to pull the tape off when she remembered she was wearing her panic alarm which was under her jumper, she pressed it without the intruder knowing.

The woman’s daughter, who does not wish to be identified, said that within minutes, and as the man had began to search the house, staff at the alarm company “were on the intercom asking if she was OK”.

That forced the intruder to flee the house, she added.

Without the alarm, and her mother’s presence of mind, “it could have been a very different story”, she said.

Her mother had initially opened the door thinking it was a delivery from a meals-on-wheels service, she added.

“This individual pushed his way into the house, screwed her arm up her back and threw her onto her settee and then proceeded to try and put tape around her face and tape up her hands.”

The ordeal has left her mother in a state of shock, she said.

“She is still quite terrified [and] has had to move out of the house until things settle for her.

“She’s a very shy person, she cannot understand how anyone would even know about her or call to her door – she is very confused.

“But the bottom line is she is very brave – she is supergran.”

The pensioner’s family are urging anyone who feels they need a personal alarm to get one, and they have called on government to help cover the cost.

The woman’s daughter said people must also ensure “that their loved ones wear it”.

Police have appealed for anyone with information about the burglary, in which the woman’s purse and handbag were taken, to contact them.

Her daughter also appealed for information.

“It is horrible, no one wants this to happen to their family, or to anyone else’s,” she said.

She added: “We cannot make any sense of it, why anyone would do this to anyone let alone an old lady whose totally defenceless but at least she foiled him we are happy with that”.

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