Apprentice star, 25, fears for sight in one eye after mugging
A FORMER Apprentice contestant fears her sight may be permanently damaged after she was violently beaten by two muggers.
Elle Stevenson, 25, suffered broken bones in her cheek and severe damage to her left eye.
She was left bloodied and battered after one of the thugs punched her twice in the face following an unsuccessful attempt to steal her mobile phone.
Miss Stevenson said she feels let down by the Metropolitan Police after officers refused to review CCTV footage, which she believes would help identify her attackers.
‘The police just don’t care,’ she said. ‘They have no interest. They’ve done nothing.’
Miss Stevenson, from Windsor, Berkshire, was returning from a Christmas party with a friend when she was attacked in the early hours of Sunday, December 16. As they sat on the steps of Charing Cross station in central London two men approached them.
Suddenly, she realised her phone had gone. Her friend sprinted after the men and recovered it. The two women then went into a McDonald’s restaurant to get something to eat, but when they came out they saw the men again.
Miss Stevenson, who lasted six weeks in the 2015 series of The Apprentice, said: ‘One man then came around behind me and shoved me in the back and as I fell forwards I was punched in the face twice by another man.
‘I felt blood pouring down my face. I then went to the floor. They battered me. I was smacked squarely in the face – I feel they tee’d me up. He fractured my cheek and I have damage to my eye socket.
‘I can’t see out of that eye at the moment and I have to wait for all the swelling to go down before doctors will be able to see if my eyesight has been affected permanently. My memory has been affected and I am getting confused.’
Miss Stevenson said the men had eastern European accents. In January, the Met Police said it will no longer investigate low-level crimes if officers have to look at CCTV for more than 20 minutes, but this was understood not to include violent crime.
Miss Stevenson says officers would have to watch only five minutes of footage.
The Met Police said: ‘ The CCTV cameras in McDonald’s did not cover the area where the offences took place.
‘Since the two women were unable to provide a time at which they entered McDonald’s – and they stated that they would not be able to identify the suspects – officers explained that there was insufficient likelihood of suspects being identified to warrant analysis of around 90 minutes of CCTV footage.’
Miss Stevenson – who has not been able to return to her job as a construction firm manager – said she had provided a credit card statement showing the time she left McDonald’s and that both she and her friend could identify the attackers.
‘My memory is affected’