[VIDEO] ‘They didn’t want the car, they wanted me’
The woman who was dragged and ran over by three attackers in Kenmare a week ago, is telling her story, hoping to warn others to be vigilant.
A week ago Denise Reed (55) was held at gunpoint, pepper sprayed, dragged 400 metres on tar road, dangling from a vehicle, and nearly kidnapped by three men.
She survived, but her attackers, still on the loose, had left her humiliated, scared, injured and traumatised.
Read initial article here: Woman pepper sprayed then driven over
On Wednesday (23 March), just before 1pm, Denise parked her car in the shade of a row of fully-bloomed trees in Down Street. She was supposed to meet her husband at a nearby coffee shop for lunch. After climbing out and searching for something in the boot of the car, she saw out of the corner of her eye an approaching car.
“To my left, a high-end E class navy blue Mercedes-Benz drove slowly towards me. A friend of mine has a similar car, so I thought it might have been hers. But the car stopped, and three well-dressed men calmly climbed out of the vehicle. Still then I did not think anything of it. I thought they wanted to ask for directions,” she remembered.
“Suddenly one of them held a gun to my side. He told me to get inside their car but I refused. This upset them and they started to beat, kick and shove me. I told them to take whatever they wanted and even offered them my car keys, but they simply said “no, we want you”.
Denise recalled that upon hearing that, she feared they would kidnap and rape her. “Then I really started to fight,” she said.
Denise’s resistance made the attackers resort to even more violence. She was hit over the head with a larger gun that left her dazed and nauseous, lying on the ground.
“They then dragged me by my legs towards their car,” she said.
With her body halfway in the car and her back dragging on the tar, Denise felt the car move. They drove over her leg and continued to drive for 400 metres, dragging her along.
“Still I resisted and kicked as hard as I could. This was the last kick before they left go of my leg. I was free.”
Denise later had to be given an anesthetic for medical personnel to remove the tar that had sunk into the skin of her back. The attacker took nothing but Denise’s handbag. She tore various ligaments in her leg and sustained extensive bruising.
“I believe they are part of a well-organised syndicate who want to kidnap woman and hold them for ransom,” she said.
Police were at the scene on 23 March and took statements from various witnesses, but Denise has not yet given her recollection of the events over to police. She is still fearful of leaving the safety of her house.
“I never thought one human being could be capable of inflicting such harm on another. It was a brutal attack where no respect for human life was shown,” she told the News more than a week after the day she said changed her life.
In a separate, but similar incident, police are investigating a case of attempted hijacking and attempted murder after a woman was shot at in Dromore Street in Kenmare on 10 March as she parked her vehicle in a driveway.
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• Pastor arrested for rape and kidnapping
