Disabled man targeted by vandals

A COLERAINE man with cerebral palsy says he’s been left housebound after vandals attacked his mobility trike.
Coleraine wheelchair owner David Hall who's Hippi Trike was vandalised leaving with any kind of transportation.PICTURE MARK JAMIESON.Coleraine wheelchair owner David Hall who's Hippi Trike was vandalised leaving with any kind of transportation.PICTURE MARK JAMIESON.
Coleraine wheelchair owner David Hall who's Hippi Trike was vandalised leaving with any kind of transportation.PICTURE MARK JAMIESON.

David Hall (27) from New Mills told The Coleraine Times last week of his distress after he was handed a £600 bill to repair his specially adapted trike.

“I was coming out of Asda in Coleraine and the bike started to loose power.

“I called the RAC and the mechanic took the trike away to have a look at it.

“ The next day he rang me to tell me that he thought someone had tampered with the trike.

“There was stones and gravel in the engine,” explained David, who is well-known in the Coleraine area.

David’s trike allows him to move around independently, without it he says he is left alomst housebound.

This is the second time David’s trike has been targeted.

His first was stolen just weeks after it was bought for him.

“I don’t know who could have done this to me, or why I have been singled out.

“It’s very unfair that I’ve been put through this again,” he said.

“I think someone saw me using the trike and followed me home. They wanted to damage it, but why, I don’t know.”

With a bill now of over £600 David says he doesn’t know how he will find the money to fix the trike he calls his ‘lifeline’.

“I don’t know how I will find the money to fix it.

“It could amount to another couple of hundred pounds, which I cannot afford. I only have a choice of food or getting it repaired. I don’t have that sort of money.

“These people are sick in the head and they don’t realise what they have done because it’s my only means of getting around.”

Without the trike he is fully reliant on his mother.

He added: “I have lived in this house for eight years and just can’t understand why I have been targeted again.”

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