Police today, August 24th, released an e-fit of mugger who attacked a Nigerian woman while she was in labour. The suspect punched her in the face and stole her phone as she tried to call her family.
On June 26th, Patience Chukwu, 40, had left her home in north London to take a bus to hospital and was having contractions when the man swiped her Samsung Galaxy from her hands.
“I took out my phone to call my sister and tell her I was on the way to the hospital when the boy came up to me. He stood in front of me and I thought he was about to ask for directions. He was standing there staring at me and then he snatched the phone from me. As he grabbed it, I grabbed him by the hood. I was trying to recover the phone. He just hit me. He went to hit me in the stomach, so I bent double and the blow hit me in the face.”
The attacker got on his BMX to flee but Ms Chukwu grabbed him. “He was dragging me and I was screaming,” she said.
“Then he hit me for a third time and I went blind for a short time. So I let go and he was gone.
“It was horrifying. I sat there afterwards shaking and shivering”
Ms Chukwu was initially treated on the street by police after the assault, which took place on a Sunday at about 10am in Leadale Road, Stamford Hill. She was taken to Homerton hospital, where medics took her into theatre for a Caesarean section after being unable to detect her child’s heartbeat.
