Woman, 81, felled after she hit thug

PLUCKY 81-year-old Joyce Birchall punched a mugger in the face when he snatched her handbag as she returned home from a shopping trip.

Joyce was picked on by the thug on Beckett Road, Wheatley, Doncaster, as she waited for a bus to take her home.

A man in his 20s approached her from behind, grabbed her shoulder, and tried to pull her bag from her grasp.

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Joyce fought back, punching him in the face with her clenched fist.

“But that made him angry and he hit me back,” she told The Star today. “I came off much worse and ended up on the pavement.”

Joyce has been left nursing a black eye and a bruised nose, and she lost her handbag.

But she praised a young couple of Good Samaritans who came to her aid after the terrifying incident near the junction with Axholme Road.

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“I only know them as Ryan and Emma but they were lovely to me,” she said. “When Ryan realised I’d been robbed he chased after him but lost him as Emma took care of me.

“They took me to her family then drove me to my granddaughter’s house to collect spare house keys. Later they sent me a bouquet of flowers. I would like to thank them for all they did.”

The thief ran off up Avenue Road with Ryan in hot pursuit but he vanished into the side streets and alleyways.

The incident has not put Joyce off a trip out from her Wheatley home, but she is still coming to terms with her ordeal: “I can still feel his hand on my shoulder. It will take me a long time to get over it,” she said. “A car sounded its horn near me the other day and it made me jump because I am so nervous.”

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The robber was white, in his 20s, and thin. He was 5ft 6ins tall, wore a dirty red baseball cap, and a light coloured lightweight zip-up jacket.

Information on the robbery, on September 28 at 7.10pm, should call Det Con Mary O’Shea on 01302 385 139 or 0114 220 2020 quoting incident number 1003.

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