KILLED FOR A £20 RING AND £30 CASH
Family’s plea to find murderer of 87-year-old great-gran
WHEN 87-year-old Eileen Blane was brutally attacked in her own home by a heartless stranger, her first thought was for others.
Lying in a hospital bed hours after having her ribs broken and her spine damaged, she told her sons: “I want this man to be caught. He could do this to someone else. One day he’ll kill someone.”
Tragically, Eileen, a much-loved grandmother and great-grandmother, had predicted her own death.
Less than two months after the brutal attack in which she was dragged, punched and kicked across her Stretford home by a man who fled with a £20 ring and £30 cash, she was found collapsed by her son David Blane, 58.
Her death was later linked by a pathologist to her injuries. It became a murder investigation last May.
Before she died, Eileen spoke to the police about the attack that was to end her life. A heartbreaking recording of her recounting her ordeal has now been released on the anniversary of the attack as the hunt for her attacker continues.
“He started chucking me about you see, I couldn’t get up,” Eileen told officers. “I asked him to stop but he wouldn’t. He was quite nasty.
“He just wouldn’t stop hitting me, that was the main thing. He just said ‘where are you going?’ all the time.
“He saw we weren’t going to get out, you see, he was going to make sure we wouldn’t. It was a nightmare.”
Eileen’s attacker - who also savagely drop-kicked Eileen’s jack russell Sammy as he tried to protect her - is still at large. Police have released new CCTV footage and an e-fit of the attacker as part of a fresh appeal for information. A £50,000 reward is now on offer.
Eileen’s son David said: “To see mum dead on the floor is horrific. The culprit is still out there. He could have done this to someone else. I want this person to be caught.”
His brother John added: “If you are the culprit, hand yourself in. It’s only a matter of time now. Do the right thing.”
Eileen’s horrific ordeal began on the afternoon of February 3 last year when she answered the door of her Castleton Avenue home to a man she believed to be the window cleaner.
Forcing his way in, the hooded thug
punched Eileen in the face, kicked her and dragged her into the living room.
The robber then pushed her against the hob in the kitchen, demanding gold and money, telling her she ‘wouldn’t get out of the house alive.’
When his search for cash and jewellery took him upstairs, the quickthinking great-grandmother picked up Sammy and ran to a neighbour’s house where she waited for police.
Eileen’s loved ones were called and rushed over to see her. Son John, 57, said: “She was upset, but she was saying, ‘I’m all right, the dog’s all right.’
“Mum insisted she was fine, that’s the way she was.”
For days, Eileen resisted going to hospital. But she was eventually admitted to a ward, where medics found she had broken ribs and a damaged spine as well as severe bruising to her face.
David added: “We made the house nice for when she came home. Unfortunately, she was going to die there.”
Eileen was devastated by the loss of her wedding ring, a treasured memory of her husband David who died in 2003, which her sons say would have been worth just £20.
David added: “Her wedding ring had been on her finger for 63 years before this young chap decided to take it off. He nicked that and £30. She lost her life for that.
“She always said, ‘have they caught him yet?’ She was so concerned he was still walking around.”
Sadly, her sons say, Eileen’s active recovery moved a blood clot in her leg, causing a pulmonary embolism.
She died on April 1 - a day after leaving hospital. “My mum was laid there, half on the settee, half on the floor,” said David. “Clearly she wasn’t with us any more. It was horrific.”