A mum said she now wakes up "shaking" with fear after a group of thugs attacked her disabled dad's home.
Gillian Hope was visiting her 79-year-old dad's house when they heard a knock on the door at around 10pm, just three days before Christmas. The family ignored the knocking as it was so late but it continued, reaching a point when it was "a constant banging."
The pair then heard a loud smash as a stone was hurled through their front room's window. Gillian's dad Richard then opened the front door, and saw three men outside, shouting "pay the f***ing money back."
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Gillian, whose dad lives in Shevington, Wigan, a village that was recently the scene of a shooting and acid attack, locked the door and waited for the police to arrive. The men remained outside the home, sat in a white car, reports the M.E.N.
Gillian assesed the damage afterwards and found many of their windows had been smashed or cracked. They believe the attack on their home was targeted but believe the perpetrators must have got the wrong home, and Gillian and Richard say they have been left petrified and anxious following the attack.
"I haven't slept since," Gillian told the M.E.N, "I'm absolutely exhausted. I can't cope at all.
"We don't feel safe anymore at all. I'm doing the best I can to carry on and support my dad but I'm just so exhausted after this.
"I've looked at some CCTV footage of the incident today and it's so scary. It's very busy around but these men are there doing this and shouting at us, it wasn't pleasant at all having to relive it.
"How do we ever move on from this, I don't feel safe on my own anymore. We've both been left feeling very vulnerable, my dad is crying all the time. We feel helpless."
Gillian added they have received a lot of support from neighbours and others in the tightknit community where her dad lives. "My dad has lived there for 45 years, he's very well known and loved in the village, he's a local celebrity with the record breaking sunflowers he's grown on the house," she added.
"It's a lovely village, everyone knows each other, and we've never had any problems in the past. For something like this to happen is very frightening especially after the shooting last month, it has really shaken the village, it just doesn't happen in a place like this.
"We're just absolutely baffled by why they've done this. It's not as if they've been quiet about it either, all the neighbours were watching them do this.
"I am shaking when I wake up now, I have never had anxiety but I feel so worried all the time now. I'm frightened to leave the house to walk dogs on my own, which is my business, it's so sad."
A Greater Manchester Police spokesman said: "At around 10:20pm on Thursday 22 December 2022, officers received reports of criminal damage of a property on Gathurst Lane, Shevington. Officers attended the scene and no injuries were reported. An investigation has since been launched to determine the circumstances surrounding this incident."
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