I’ve been stabbed
Mother’s cry after being knifed three times in street as she pushed baby in pram near home
A MOTHER pushing her baby in a pram screamed ‘ I’ve been stabbed’ after a thug attacked her in the street.
Josephine Conlon, 36, begged for help after the knifeman approached her from behind and launched a vicious assault that left her hunched over the pushchair.
Witnesses said her face was dripping with blood in full view of her toddler.
Her attacker said nothing during the incident in Streatham, south London, and ran off before police officers could arrive.
Mrs Conlon, who is a marketing manager for McDonald’s, was taken to hospital but her injuries are not life-threatening or life- changing, according to the Metropolitan Police Service. Her child was unharmed.
Detectives said that they are keeping an open mind as to the motive but there was speculation locally that it was an attempted mugging.
Residents of the smart street where the attack took place rushed to Mrs Conlon’s aid after hearing her screams. They helped her summon her husband Greg.
Drops of dried blood were visible on the pavement and a gravel driveway some 24 hours after the attack on Monday.
One resident said: ‘Her face was pouring with blood, she was trying to phone her husband when I approached. She was so shocked she wasn’t able to dial the number so I helped. He turned up pretty quickly so I assume she is quite local.
‘There was no clue as to why it had happened, but the police and ambulance turned up pretty quickly’, one man said. Another witness said: ‘She was screaming loudly “help, help” for a few minutes.
‘It was probably for her mobile phone as she was on the phone when it happened.’
Another local said: ‘I was going out to the shops when I heard a woman scream. I ran out and she was standing hunched over slightly leaning on her pushchair.
‘She said “I’ve been attacked, I’ve been attacked” and looked really shocked and frightened. I was the first to reach her and called the police right away.
‘As I was doing so other people came out to see if the woman was OK and I heard her tell them that she’d been mugged.
‘At first she’d not looked too badly hurt but eventually blood began pouring down her face. I didn’t know at the time that she’d actually been stabbed from behind.’
Police declined to give an age for the child in the pushchair, and said any possible motive was still being assessed.
The lone suspect is described as a black man, who was around 6ft and wearing dark clothing.
There have been no arrests and police officers are appealing to witnesses to come forward.
A Scotland Yard spokesman said: ‘Detectives are appealing for witnesses after a mother was stabbed in an unprovoked attack in Streatham Hill while she was with her child. Officers were called at 5.23pm on Monday to a report of a 36-year-old woman stabbed in Downton Avenue. ‘The woman was taken to hospital. Her injuries have been assessed as not life-threatening or lifechanging. The stabbing occurred as the victim was pushing her child in a pushchair. The child was not injured. She was attacked from behind by a lone suspect, described as a black man, around 6ft tall and wearing dark clothing.
‘The man did not speak as he stabbed the victim three times before running off down Downton Avenue away from the High Road.’
It it the latest attack in what has been a bloody year in the capital.
On Christmas Eve, Flamur Beqiri, 36, was gunned down outside his home in Battersea, in south-west London There have been 149 murder investigations so far this year.
Susan Hall, who leads the Conservatives in the Greater London Authority, said: ‘It’s nothing short of a tragedy that the mayor’s complacent approach to violent crime led to 149 homicides on London’s streets last year.
‘The mayor’s decision to cut stop and search and waste millions more on PR instead of recruiting extra police officers has left London defenceless against criminal gangs and knife crime.
‘There is no doubt that 2019 will be remembered as the worst year in Sadiq Khan’s unsuccessful mayoral term. London deserves a Mayor who will act to keep our city safe and prioritise Londoners’ safety above all else.’
‘Shocked and frightened’ ‘Keep our city safe’