Self-defence in the News - No. 119

Perth woman uses army self-defence to fight off teens

Oct 08, 2022

Di, a 70-year-old woman from Perth was ambushed by teenagers who wanted her cigarettes.

A 70-year-old woman has fought off two would-be thieves after they ambushed her for cigarettes as she sat alone on the verandah of her home in Australia.

 

"They went, 'if you don't give it to us we're going to hurt you'," Di told 9News in Perth.

 

The retiree, who relies on a walking frame, was punched in the face but she managed to land two blows of her own.

 

When she refused to hand over the cigarettes, one of the teenagers lunged.

 

Di, a former clinical nurse, leapt into action, using self-defence she learnt in the army.

 

"The next thing I knew I got punched in the face and that came so quick I didn't have a chance to do anything," the 70-year-old said.

 

"But the second one I was ready for and I blocked that.

 

She managed to wind her attacker before taking on his accomplice.

 

"The other one came at me and he had his arms up covering his torso so I couldn't do the same thing and I just kicked out and hit him hard in the scrotum."

 

Battered and bruised, the duo ran away along Throssell Street but in the dark, CCTV didn't manage to capture the pair as they fled.

 

"I didn't expect I would do anything. It absolutely shocked me when I got so enraged and thought I'm not standing for this."

 

After the pair left, an exhausted Di fell, hitting her head on the verandah, where she lay unconscious before crawling to her mobile phone and calling for help.

 

The incident, which left Di's face bruised and swollen, happened just after 11pm on Wednesday (local time).

 

"It was only six cigarettes and the police said to me, 'you should of just given it to them and they would have gone away', but that wasn't the point," she said.

 

Even as Australian detectives continue to hunt the teens, the retiree says she refuses to live in fear.

Di was attacked by two teenage boys, but she managed to land a few blows of her own.

Self-defence in the News - No. 118

Teenage Girl Escapes Abductor

Monday, 7 November 2022

The Selwyn Fireworks Spectacular event at Foster park. Photo: Selwyn Fireworks Spectacular

With a crowd of thousands, plenty of security and police, a Christchurch dad had no doubts his daughter would be safe attending a packed-out Guy Fawkes event and he certainly didn’t expect her to nearly be abducted from it.

The dad, who media have agreed has not to name, said a man approached his 14-year-old daughter at the Selwyn Fireworks Spectacular in Foster Park on Saturday night.

 

“[She] bent down to tie up her shoe lace and as she stood up, she felt someone tug her arm and initially thought it was one of her friends,” he said.

 

“When she looked up and realised it wasn’t one of her friends she pulled her arm away and he grabbed her arm again and started to walk off with her... forcefully.”

 

The girl told her family and police that the man was walking away with her towards the exit for around six seconds and she went into panic mode, experiencing blurriness and echoing.

 

In a final yank, she managed to pull away from the man and screamed as she ran to the business tents.

 

People at the tents calmed her down and then her friends and their family members took her to report the incident to police on site.

 

The dad said he received a phone call from police and was told to meet them and his daughter at the Rolleston police station where they made official statements.

 

“The police were amazing. They were really supportive, they were really friendly, they looked after her because she was quite shaken and hysterical and scared,” he said.

 

“For me, it was the brazenness of it. There was 14,000 people there and there was police and security and whoever it was still tried to do what they did, that was the most shocking thing.”

 

A police spokesperson confirmed they received a report about the incident and are making inquiries.

 

Now the dad has been further shocked after posting details about the incident to a local Facebook community page and getting responses from others who have recently faced a similar situation.

 

“If this was an isolated incident, you think, well okay someone tried something stupid but it’s more worrying that more and more people are now commenting on it saying ‘I wonder if this is the same guy that tried this with my son or my daughter within the last month or so’ – that’s a bit more worrying for me,” he said.

 

He said he wants people to be aware that situations that might look like a father trying to get his adolescent to come home could in fact be an abduction, but didn’t blame anyone for not stepping in to help the girl.

 

“Somebody somewhere must have seen something and thought ‘it’s nothing, I’m not going to get involved when actually it could have been a lot worse’,” he said.

 

“I’ve been in that situation before where I’ve thought it’s not my business.”

 

When approached by the Herald, President of the Selwyn Fireworks Spectacular committee Chris O’Brien said he was not aware the incident had occurred.

 

O’Brien said security had been increased by 20 per cent compared with 2020′s event and that they work closely with emergency services to ensure a safe event.

 

He said the committee will contact police about the incident and will identify areas for prevention for the 2023 event.

 

-By Caitlan Johnston