Crimewatch posts face of woman’s attacker
POLICE has released an e-fit image of a man who viciously attacked a 73-yearold woman.
Sylvia Pinder and her husband, John, were walking along the canal path in Widnes towards the Mersey Gateway Bridge.
The now 74-year-old decided to feed the swans before heading off and left her husband at the car while she walked to the other end of the canal.
Sylvia and John spoke to BBC’s Crimewatch Live about what happened as part of a national appeal for information.
She said the man ‘pulled her down’ and demanded that she gave him her purse and money.
She told the show: “I sensed there was somebody coming up behind me, and to be quite honest I didn’t think anything about it.
“I walked past where the flyover is and he just appeared on my left side. He grabbed my coat at the neck and just said ‘give me your purse, give me your money’.
“Because he pulled me down, by this point I was flat on my back, and he just straddled across me trying to look in the pockets [of her coat] and screaming at me in my face.
“I was just saying ‘I haven’t got anything, I’m going feeding the swans’ and then I screamed louder than I thought I could.”
Her screams were heard by a fisherman who could not get across the canal to help her, but he shouted at the attacker who pulled a hood over his head and then fled.
Sylvia said she was “absolutely shook” by what happened, she added: “I was crying and the person on the other side of the bank was shouting to me ‘are you okay?’. He was getting himself worked up because he couldn’t get to me.
“I honestly thought if this went further, it could have been a sexual attack.
“I managed to get up again and I started walking back. Because I had been longer than I said John started walking back down the path to see where I was.”
“I managed to get up again and I started walking back. Because I had been longer than I said John started walking back down the path to see where I was.”
John said when he got closer to her, he saw she was distressed, and asked her what happened.
He added: “I feel as though she’s not as confident as she was before this happened to her.”
According to Cheshire Police, the mugger was white, 5ft 11 tall, very thin with very short or shaved hair.
He appeared to be in his 30s and he was wearing a jacket.