I’m selling up after finding God, says mugged pensioner
A disabled pensioner who was viciously mugged is putting his home on the market just months after well-wishers raised £330,000 to help him buy it.
Alan Barnes, 67, a committed Christian who has suffered from growth problems since birth, said he was heeding ‘a call from God’ and moving to the Shetlands.
Mr Barnes, who is only 4ft6in, became a household name in January after his collar bone was broken in an attempted mugging. An appeal by local beautician Katie Cutler, 21, touched hearts across the UK and raised £330,000. Mr Barnes used £150,000 of the cash to buy a twobedroom Victorian terraced house.
But he says he has not been able to settle and he has put it back on the market. The house in Low Fell, Tyneside, is for sale for £155,000. He says he plans a fresh start on the Shetland Islands and hopes to do youth work there for the church.
Mr Barnes said: ‘God spoke to me, he wanted me to go to the Shetland Islands. I have never been to the Shetland Islands, it’s just I have heard about them.’