A woman attacked repeatedly in Wisbech on Friday went to the police station but was told they couldn’t fit her in to make a statement.
She was advised to drive to March Police Station – only to be told at March that their police officers were in Wisbech.
Angry, bruised and battered after the attack the woman refused an offer made by police at March to return the following day.
The victim messaged me from March Police Station to say “I’m not accepting their offer of an appointment to come back here tomorrow”.
She said she would not be leaving the station until she had spoken to a police inspector – shortly to start his shift.
In the meantime Cambs Police had responded to a series of Tweets to apologise for the delay.
“Unfortunately there was a delay in speaking to the woman involved as officers were unavailable, dealing with other incidents,” they responded via Twitter.
“Our officers are making it a priority to visit the victim this evening.”
The victim received a black eye, bruising to her face, a cut lip and had her ear rings ripped off after crossing the road to the car park on Friday afternoon near the Wheatsheaf public house.
The incident happened early afternoon in Wisbech as the victim and her son – aged 10 – and daughter, 21, were returning to their car. We have withheld the family’s names at their request.
“I heard a car revving up as it came out of the car park,” she said. “However by then we had seen the road was clear and had crossed it, except for my daughter.
“The car sped out, narrowly missing my daughter but that didn’t prevent the children in the speeding car from sticking their fingers up to us. I shouted out ‘what is the point of that?’
“Suddenly the car pulled over by the shops – I hope this is on CCTV – and a woman got out and approached shouting ‘you shouldn’t be on the road with f***ing kids. “Meanwhile the man driver, I presume to be her partner or husband, sat in the car mouthing off.
“I said to the woman – ‘look you’ve got your children in your car – is that acceptable?’ and with that she started attacking me. I grabbed her at one point and my daughter tried to get her off me. But I heard her warn my daughter ‘I’ll hit you’”
The victim said: “The woman from the other car hit me three times, ripped my earrings of, bruised my lip, left me with a black eye, my mouth bleeding, and very badly shaken
“My daughter got on the phone to the police and meanwhile I asked people who were standing around, filming it on their phones, ‘did you see what happened’? The woman broke my phone, too, but luckily my daughter had hers.
“We then walked to Wisbech police station after being told that’s what we had to do. “When we arrived a woman at the desk told me she had been trying to message to me so say they only taken statements on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday and although this was a Friday she had no slot available.
“She told me ‘we can fit you in on Sunday’ but what’s the point of that? There were others at the police station – I’m not sure how many were police officers – and I explained ‘look I have been attacked. Could someone please take photographs?”
The victim said: “What annoyed me too was that I had got a cheeky message from the police – the phone still works to that extent – asking me to dial 101 to discuss my ‘road rage threats.’. They knew I had been physically attacked three times and they are calling it road rage threats?”
The victim says she was angry at not being given better service by police and angry too that passers-by who witnessed the incident didn’t intervene but simply filmed it on their phones.
Photos of her injuries have now been handed to police who took a statement on Friday evening; police were also given a photo of the car alleged to have been involved.
“At one moment I was angrier with the police lack of interest than with the attack itself,” said the victim who is now hoping police will be able to trace her attacker.
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