A plucky grandmother who was pinned down by a group of men while their female friend attacked her has said she “won’t let them frighten her”.
Clarinda Gabriel, 55, had been babysitting at her daughter’s home in Princess May Road and went outside at 2am to wait for the Uber cab she had ordered.
But the cab had gone to the back of the flats instead of the front entrance and the trip ended up being cancelled.
Clarinda decided that rather than wake up her daughter Brenda she would walk towards Stoke Newington High Street and find a taxi there.
But on the way she was approached by the strangers and their friend whacked her on the head with a handbag when she refused to talk to them.
She told the Gazette: “I didn’t want to talk to people at this time of the morning, I just wanted to walk. She hit me on the head with her handbag for no reason.
“The next thing she kept on following me, and she had people holding me back. A gang of guys were holding me so she could bang me up.”
Clarinda, who was left with a cut and bruising above her eye, said: “Oh my days. I wasn’t scared. I suppose she was just a little girl to me. The next thing I picked up my bag and walked away. Some people would be scared and shaking but I just acted normal.
“To have a total stranger coming and fighting with you is horrible.
“I didn’t think about finding them – I thought: move on, because one day they will find their match. One day someone is going to give it to her.”
Clarinda’s daughter Brenda, however, was understandably shaken.
“It was scary seeing her bleeding like that when she came back to my house,” she said.
The assailants were in their 30s, but police say there is no CCTV footage of the incident and they don’t have any leads to go on.
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