Mugged at Knife point and 2 years on

Mugged

May 8th, 2016

It was an early Sunday morning,  I had gone out to pick up my mum ready for us to go to my daughters first majorette competition. I rang her to say I was nearly there but she wasn’t ready so I said I would go to the petrol station and fill my car up to give her a few extra minutes.

I went in to pay for my diesel and my card got declined, the cashier said there was a cash machine just through the alley in-between a Tesco and a pub. So instead of doing the smarter thing and staying where I was and just transfer money into my bank using my phone, I thought no ill walk to it and get some cash out so if my daughter wants to buy any equipment whilst we were there then she could.

It was an early sunny Sunday morning (8 am ) and no one was about so I made my way to the cash machine. I saw a man who didn’t look like he was doing anything and just suspiciously hanging around I felt really uncomfortable and my guard came straight up I knew something wasn’t right.  He walked past me as I was drawing £50 out the machine and as I turned around to walk back through the alley to the petrol station I saw an old man walking through there with a newspaper so I decided just to avoid the alley and go the other side round where it was open and maybe there would be CCTV camera’s if god forbid something was to happen.

As I came out the other side  I saw the man again, he had gone through the alley and then walked back on himself to meet me as I came around.  I saw him and he saw me, I then saw the huge kitchen knife in his left hand hidden up his sleeve with the blade sticking out.

When I saw him hovering around at the cash machine I took a quick mental note of what he was wearing. I didn’t really see his face at the time as he had walked past me.  When I saw the knife he ran at me so fast. I tried to run as fast as my stupid shoes could go whilst looking back to see how close he was getting to me, I fell back on my arse and elbow on the floor and I honestly thought my time was up I was screaming and I was so close to the petrol station I could see the doors open but no one heard me.

I remember my heart pounding out my chest as he held the knife above me and that horrible look in his eye telling me to give him my money, I don’t know how I did it but I managed to look at his face and remember certain things about his appearance, I was absolutely terrified I gave him my money and I thought that he was going to stab me anyway.

Then he told me to give him my phone, I had been holding my bank card, phone, cash and keys. I begged him not to take my phone as my children’s photos were all on it, surprisingly he didn’t take it and just ran off shouting ‘IM SORRY’

I got up, my legs shaking uncontrollably and ran to the open doors at the garage screaming and crying, I think I must have gone into shock because as soon as I was inside my legs gave up and  I collapsed.  The lady who was on the till called the police straight away and they literally arrived within minutes with cars, vans, dogs, guns. I rang my mum in the garage and she raced over, I was so relieved to see her.

I then rang David to tell him what had happened and I was going to be late for my little girl’s competition and he just felt completely useless. I had all the car seats in the car so he couldn’t even get to me. I gave the police a good description of the man. The next day he got arrested and had been seen on CCTV coming out the flats where he lived with something shoved up his sleeve, he was on CCTV walking past me at the cash machine and running away from the attack, the only time he wasn’t on CCTV was the actual attack.

The police found the knife I had described in his flat and it was the only knife in is flat, he admitted mugging me straight away in court but denied having a knife which really upset me as now he was making me out to be a liar on top of what he put me through.

The police saw right through him and they kept him remanded. Fast forward 4 months and I had to go to crown court to tell my version, I just cried I really didn’t want to go I shouldn’t have had to be there if he had just told the truth.

The case got called and my heart felt like it had stopped, I was a nervous wreck. I walked up to the room which was next to the courtroom with my mum and we sat there waiting to be called in.  My brother and partner went to sit in the courtroom to listen to the case. It felt like we were waiting hours in that room thinking anytime now I have to go in and face him. A barrister then came into our room and told us that he had pleaded guilty on all accounts and that I didn’t have to go into the courtroom now and that they were just sentencing him.

He got 4 years and will be out in 2 which will be anytime now.

I hope that he has managed to get the help he needs whilst in prison. It has taken me 2 long years to come to terms with what happened. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. It has given me terrible anxiety and I have been through numerous counselling session to learn how to deal with it but to be honest, I don’t see me ever being able to.