CHIGWELL: Man speaks of horror at being beaten with gun (From This Is Local London)

CHIGWELL: Man speaks of horror at being beaten with gun

4:46pm Monday 25th June 2012 in Where I Live By Clare Hardy, Senior reporter

A DISABLED man was beaten with a gun by three masked men who broke into the home he shares with his 84-year-old mother.

The gang left Andrew Aarons, 45, with five head wounds after they broke in through the front kitchen window of his house in Lyndhurst Rise, Chigwell, at about 3am on Saturday.

“There was a noise I heard and I turned around and there was a masked man with a gun to my back saying ‘give me money’,” said Mr Aarons.

“Two other people came in – another gunman and a guy with a kitchen knife.

“They wore latex gloves and baseball caps and had cloths tied over the rest of their faces.”

After threatening Mr Aarons, one of the men hit him over the head with a gun before leaving the bathroom.

“I locked myself in and they knocked the door down,” he said. “The door got broken and jammed and I couldn’t get through.”

While he was in the bathroom, one of the men ran into his mother’s room and demanded money, but she only had a few pounds in her purse, which she gave him.

Mr Aarons, who suffers chronic pain in his legs and has mobility problems, managed to open the broken bathroom door.

But as he made his way downstairs to get help, he was chased and beaten to the ground.

The men also went through his 60-year-old lodger’s room and the living room looking for money, but did not steal anything else besides a mobile phone and about 15 minutes after the terrifying intrusion, they left.

“I heard one say ‘they’re just pensioners, there’s no money here’,” said Mr Aaron.

He said he no longer felt safe in his neighbourhood and was thinking of setting up a scheme to help protect local residents.

“This is not a safe neighbourhood,” he added. “The area is becoming dangerous.”

The men are described as in their 20s and of slim build and were wearing dark boiler suits with knee-length olive green jackets.

Anyone with information on the burglary should call detectives at Harlow police station on 101.

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