THE husband of a woman bashed in a “frenzied” attack at Altona held back tears as he pleaded for her attacker to give themselves up.
Michael Overend’s wife Jill Brookes was left for dead at her Harrington Square bookshop on the afternoon of July 20.
“She has been very badly injured and I would seriously want the person who has done this to come forward,” Mr Overend said.
“I don’t think anyone would do this intentionally without having some conscience about what they have done and I would ask them to come forward, or if someone knows who they are to tell the police who they are.”
Ms Brookes, 61, remains in the intensive care unit at The Alfred hospital.
“Jilly is a person who will help anyone,” Mr Overend said.
“She has had kids in there [bookshop] who are after work experience. She has people in there who help her out because they just want something to do so she gives them a job to do. She’s just a person who would help anyone if they needed it. To have this done to her, it’s just unbelievable.
“I would describe this act as someone who is either in a frenzy or in some state of mind that would not be coherent, because noone could do that to a person. What’s been done to Jilly, noone could do that and still be a rational human being.”
Traders are on “high alert” but have vowed to “be brave” in the wake of the bashing.
Pier Street traders joined those from Harrington Square last Thursday, pledging to watch each other’s backs and develop a “buddy system”.
“Every time I go to work I just keep on thinking what if it’s going to happen to me,” one woman told the Weekly.
One trader who spoke of being threatened with a syringe for the remainder of her cigarette in Queen Street said traders had to stand tall.
“I think it’s great if you’ve got everybody in Harrington Square trying to encourage the shoppers to keep coming. If we’re freaked out, they’re not gonna come,” she said.
One trader suggested a buddy system to make sure noone was left alone and vulnerable, particularly when working late shifts.
“If four or five shops are working late on certain days we don’t want to leave one of them alone when the rest of us close and we don’t want to be vulnerable in that sort of situation. It has been difficult,” she said.
“We are on high alert. But I’m not scared because I know that people will look after each other. We are a pretty close-knit community and it’s just horrible what’s happened.”
