A BOUND and gagged woman climbed out of a fourth floor window desperately trying to flee a knife-wielding attacker who struck in her Kentish Town home on Friday.
As a police hostage negotiator talked to the 37-year-old
suspect through the front door of the flat in Durdans House, Kentish Town
Road, the woman clung by her fingertips to a ledge 50 feet up.
A terrified crowd gasped as she stood on one foot, heel hanging over the edge
of the ledge, trying to shake off a roll of decorator’s masking tape
attached to her foot. The tape had been wrapped around her mouth and arms.
Fire crews rushed to her aid using a hydraulic arm that
had just arrived from Paddington fire station. Two fire fighters from Euston
Fire Station plucked the woman, believed to be a mother-of-two in her forties,
from the ledge.
An onlooker said: “The fire fighters leapt into action before I even
realised what happened, but the arm moved so slowly. I was convinced she was
going to fall and die.”
Riot squad officers rushed into the building and battered
down the door, arresting the man inside before he could reach her.
The woman made her desperate escape just after the fire brigade arrived, having
come to the window several times to beg police officers to help her.
She was sobbing and large bruises could be seen on her
forehead. Masking tape had been wrapped around her face and arms.
At one stage the man, naked from the waist up and brandishing a large kitchen
knife, came to the window and dragged her away before slamming it shut.
The 200-strong crowd whooped with joy when fire fighters rescued the woman, and when the police brought out the suspect they jeered and pelted the man with stones and bricks.
A Scotland Yard spokeswoman said: “Police were called to reports of a domestic disturbance. Officers spoke to a male occupant who said the woman would be harmed if they entered. The woman managed to escape via a window and was rescued. Police gained entrance and a 37-year-old was arrested. The victim was not injured and not taken to hospital.”
William Kerrigan, an unemployed 37-year-old from Durdans House Kentish Town appeared at Highbury Corner Magistrates Court on Monday.
Woman flees siege in 50ft ledge terror