Attacks on elderly condemned

POLITICIANS in the North have condemned the thieves who attacked and robbed two elderly women at their homes in Co Antrim and Co Down at the weekend.In the first incident, a 71-year-old woman was left bruised and shaken after a masked man threatened her with a screwdriver outside her house in Carnmoney on Saturday night. The thief escaped with two of her handbags containing a small sum of money and personal documents. Alliance councillor Lynn Fraser said she was concerned the robbery would have a devastating impact on the pensioner. Earlier, a woman in her 80s woke up in her house in Donaghadee, Co Down, to find a masked man armed with a knife in her bedroom around 4am on Saturday. She was held for about three hours while other thieves searched her house before escaping with a sum of cash and some jewellery. - Louise McCall