2nd class!
Callous postie fails to say sorry to fall gran as her family slam Royal Mail’s box of chocs
THE family of a pensioner left lying injured in the snow by a postman has condemned him for failing to apologise.
Widow Patricia Stewart, 72, fell down her front steps when she went to collect a parcel.
She shouted to the postman to help – but he told her he was ‘knackered’ and walked off.
The callous incident in Bainsford, near Falkirk, was recorded by a neighbour’s doorbell camera.
Yesterday, the postman was named locally as Thomas McCafferty. He is not the regular postman of the pensioner, who lives alone and uses a walking frame.
This newspaper tried to offer the postman an opportunity to explain his side of events, but a woman – believed to be his wife – said she could not help when asked if he was available or if he lived at the address, near Falkirk.
Last night, Mrs Stewart’s niece and carer Sheryl Harkins said: ‘He could have contacted me to apologise but he hasn’t. Another postman told me he doesn’t think he has done anything wrong.
‘I am still expecting an official response from Royal Mail about what is happening to the guy. I wouldn’t like to think he’ll keep his job. We should be entitled to know the outcome of their investigation.
‘A manager chapped my aunt’s door and brought chocolates but there has been no official response.
‘The whole situation is disgusting... it’s inhumane to do what he’s done.’
Mrs Stewart, a grandmother of two, was left lying in the snow in tears on Thursday, during the coldest February since 1955. She was rescued after 20 minutes by Hermes driver Karolina Domska, 22.
Mrs Stewart, a former social care manager, said: ‘I felt a bit dizzy. I fell from the top step to the bottom and I banged my head. I just couldn’t get up.
‘I shouted for the postman to help me and he came back.
‘But he said, “I’ve been working from early this morning and I’m knackered”, and then went away.
‘If it hadn’t been for the people who helped I would have been lying there for hours.’
Last night, a Royal Mail spokesman said it ‘expects the highest standards of behaviour from our people’, adding: ‘We were very sorry to learn about this incident, and for the distress caused.
‘We have been in touch with the customer concerned and will be investigating.’