‘I thought he was going to kill me’: 27-year-old woman attacked by masked man in broad daylight

A 27-year-old woman was left concussed after a masked man attacked her in the street in broad daylight last Thursday.

The woman, who has asked to remain anonymous, is a writer for BBC Good Food. She was on a walk after work at around 7pm in Gypsy Hill, Crystal Palace when the attack happened.

She said: “I wanted to walk around the area because I hadn’t been around there before.

“I was only a 40-minute walk from where I live but I didn’t know where I was.”

As she turned around the corner into Saint Louis Road, she said she saw a man and remembers feeling “instantly frightened”.

She said: “He had a mask on. My memory is quite blurry so I can’t remember exactly what he looked like, but his face was covered.

“I remember thinking when I saw him something wasn’t right. I thought maybe he was committing a crime like trying to steal a bike.

“I was really scarred of turning around and getting away because I didn’t want to draw attention to myself or turn my back on him in case he followed me.

“That was obviously a huge mistake, but I just pretend that everything was fine and put my head down.”

When she got next to the masked man she said he grabbed her, and then her memory cuts out.

She said: “I don’t remember what he did to me, I thought he was going to kill me. I was so sacred.

“It’s bizarre because it was so light outside.”

The next thing she remembers is waking up outside a house a little further down the street.

She said: “I was freaking out, I was very concussed and couldn’t work out why I was on the floor.

“This woman was with me, holding my hand and calming me down.”

Together, the two women waited for more than an hour for an ambulance.

She said: “I had so much adrenaline I couldn’t feel the pain, I didn’t understand if I had been hurt.

“Then I started getting scared, I realised that man actually did something to me.

“I don’t think I’ll remember more, it was all so quick. Someone apparently saw it and said I fell over a wall.

“I have a big lump on the back of my head.”

The woman was taken to hospital and after doctors reviewed her she was sent home.

She said the next day she was in “agony” and ended up going back to hospital for a check-up after vomiting.

She was called by police on Friday, who said they needed to come and collect the clothes she had been wearing so they could sample them for DNA.

She said: “I don’t have a police reference number so I can’t get in touch with them myself. I’m really confused.

“I want to go back to see my family in Somerset but I can’t right now until the police get the clothes.

“I just really want to see my family.”

The Met have been approached for comment.

Pictured top: St Louis Road, where the woman was attacked (Picture: Google Street View)