Update: Woman attacked in Hoekwil

Update

GEORGE NEWS - A badly battered and bruised Karen Marshall (79) of Hoekwil is recovering in the George Mediclinic following a brutal attack on her by 4 unknown assailants.

Marshall was accosted by the men when she left her secure home to dispose of her leftover supper at around 22:00 on Thursday 28 December.

She told the George Herald: “I had just put the food in the bag when I was grabbed and overpowered by my attackers who firstly took me into the house and then pushed me outside into the garden and threw me face-down on the lawn where they tied my hands behind my back and bound my feet.

"One of them sat on my back while the others were inside vandalising the house. They demanded money.

"They went into the garden shed and took a spade. I heard them ransacking the house; I think they were looking for a safe. My rings were ripped off my fingers.”

Marshall estimates that they were in the house for about an hour. “They spoke in a foreign accent that I never recognised. They then manhandled me in the shower cubicle and put the bathplug in the bath and turned on the taps, flooding the house, and left.”

She managed to free her legs and pressed the security company’s panic button and then managed to remove the bath plug. The security company official found her in the bath.

“I was taken to hospital immediately so I don’t know what is missing.”

Asked how she is feeling Marshall said, “I am badly shaken.”

Malcolm Pojie, Southern Cape police spokesperson, confirmed that a house robbery case for investigation has been opened: “Preliminary information reveals that about four suspects overpowered the 79-year-old victim at her house at Bosbok Street, Hoekwil. One of the assailants had a firearm with which they threatened her. They tied her hands behind her back and whilst one of them sat on her back, the rest ransacked the house. They later fled with an undisclosed amount of jewellery, clothes, car and house keys and cellphones. The lady sustained a great degree of bruises to her pulses and possibly broken ribs. She was hospitalised for medical treatment and observation."