Professor terrified after cash-point mugging

WEEKS after a disabled man was viciously mugged at a cash point, he is still terrified of leaving his home.

The attack, during which he was kicked and thrown from his disabled buggy by two men, has left him traumatised and in deep shock.

Sixty-one-year-old ME sufferer Robert Earl, a professor of archeology, who has travelled extensively all over the world, is now virtually as housebound as his wife Sue, whom he cares for 24 hours a day.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Today, almost penniless and disabled, Professor Earl could little afford the 200 snatched by the thieves on June 25, which was to take the couple on a brief holiday to Blackpool.

The attack happened at 8.30am, when two men, described as of Eastern European appearance, jumped him at the Abbey National cash point in Devonshire Road.

He was jostled from his buggy, left bruised and shaken, as the men snatched the cash and ran off. His buggy, which also toppled over, was scratched and damaged on the arm rest and remains so eight weeks after the incident, as he cannot afford to have it repaired.

"I had gone down to the cash point to get the money for a holiday for us in Blackpool," Professor Earl told the Observer this week.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

"In the end I had to sell some videos and DVDs to raise the money for the week away.

"I thought it might help me get over the attack to get away, but I was still nervous and traumatised.

"One of the men had me by my neck, the other kicked me in the groin and ribs, causing a lot of bruising.

"They grabbed the money and ran off. I didn't see them coming. I was concentrating on what I was doing. And there was no-one around to see anything."

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Professor Earl said he managed to get back into his buggy and return to his London Road home.

Anyone with any information should contact me on 0845 60 70 999, or ring the free confidential Crimestoppers hotline on 0800 555 111 number."