‘I still see myattackers when I close my eyes’

It is the second attack on a pensioner in Banbridge in the space of two weeks.

In the most recent incident Gladys Hamilton, who is in her 70s, was still visibly shaken when she spoke to the Leader the morning after the incident.

The burglars broke down the front door of her Kenlis Place home just after 10pm on Thursday and entered her bedroom where she lay dozing.

The elderly widow, who has a history of stroke and heart problems, described the moment she woke to find the men in her room.

“I had heard a noise a wee while before but I didn’t think anything of it because you hear noises here all the time,” she said. “Soon after that I felt this tapping on my chest and when I opened my eyes I saw these two men standing there, all dressed in black. They looked like they were wearing berets on their heads and like they had darkened their skin.

“When I opened my mouth to shout one of them waved his finger at me like he was telling me not to make any noise. Then the other man said ‘I think we’ve got the wrong house’. I don’t know who they were looking for.”

Before leaving the men stole almost £200 from the woman’s pension, which she had just collected earlier that day, but she said things could have been worse.

“I don’t care about the money,” she said. “I am just glad they left before anything worse happened.”

Meanwhile on Friday two men appeared in court charged in connection with a beak-in and assault at Forthill Green earlier this month. In that incident a 61-year-old woman was hit over the head after two men broke into her house with a crowbar.

Ned Cash, 25, and 54-year-old Patrick Donovan, who both have addresses in Dublin, appeared at Newry Magistrates’ Court charged with Burglary and Aggravated Burglary.

The men were remanded in custody to appear again on March 22.