The daughter of an elderly woman who was attacked at the entrance of Our Lady of Good Hope Catholic Church in Sea Point in February says her mother will ‘never be the same independent person again.’
Also read: Elderly woman in ICU following brutal attack in Sea Point
Joyce Maria Hansen, an 85-year-old Durban resident, was walking to church while visiting her holiday home in Sea Point when an assailant ripped her gold chain from around her neck.
‘She set foot in the entrance gates, and obviously these four guys had sussed her out and followed her,’ said her daughter, Melissa Philips, in an interview with IOL. ‘One was ahead of her and one right behind her, she didn’t even see them and she was standing on the opposite road.’
‘They were very slick – had (probably) done it millions of times before – and as she stepped into the gate, he just grabbed her from behind. (He) Just took her gold chain. It was all they wanted.’
‘She fell straight backwards and landed on her head and then he casually strolled away like it was a Sunday afternoon stroll and left her bleeding and unconscious, at 85,’ she said.
Phillips said that she managed to obtain CCTV footage and bombarded the Sea Point Police Station with calls before taking to social media.
‘I decided I would just march in there … and I ask if I could see them in person and he said,”‘they’re in Pollsmoor Prison and there weren’t four of them, there were eight of them” and they got all eight of them … they were a gang … four under 18 and four adults,’ she said, adding that while pleased that the suspects were arrested, the family were ‘angry’ because Hansen has not been the same.
‘She couldn’t remember what side of the bed she sleeps on, she doesn’t know how to work the washing machine, she doesn’t know how to knit anymore. She couldn’t walk properly, we had to get a walker and everything has regressed, so she’s not the person that went to Cape Town,’ she said.
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