A GOOD Samaritan who leapt into action to stop a jewellery thief in a holiday mugging drama insisted today: “I’m not a hero.”
Philip Edwards, aged 63, gave chase after a thug snatched a woman’s pendant from around her neck on the Caribbean island of St Lucia.
He struck the thief a glancing blow, and then ran after him in a brave attempt to catch the offender, who had dragged his victim around 20ft by her necklace and knocked her partner to the ground.
Philip, a company director from north Sheffield, said: “I heard the commotion and turned, saw the couple were on the ground, and saw a man was sprinting towards me.
“I didn’t know if he was the perpetrator or if he was chasing the offender, so I had a look in the other direction to see if there was anybody else.
“He was then almost right up to me so I just took a swing at him and caught the side of his head.
“That knocked his hat off and knocked him off balance a bit.
“He sprinted away and I gave chase for a block, but my partner was screaming at me to leave it.”
He insisted: “It’s not a big deal – you hope that you’d do the best for somebody but you never know.
“I’m not a hero - I just wish I’d seen what happened as I could probably have helped more.”
After Philip gave up the chase he went back to help the couple, as did many islanders in the busy town of Castries.
A news report on the drama was later recorded by a local broadcaster and shown on St Lucia television.
In it the English victim, Janine Patterson, and her partner David Venables - believed to be a cousin of football manager Terry - thanked local people for their support.
Philip added: “The people all rallied around, they were very shocked at what had happened and there were a lot of good people who came to give assistance.
“On the island there are a lot of good people and it shouldn’t put visitors off going, because they rely on tourism.
“It was quite overwhelming the people that came to help, and the anger locals felt that it had happened in the first place.”
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