'Petrified' woman wakes to find burglar standing over her brandishing meat cleaver at Leigh Park house

Kirsty Flew, who was in bed with her seven-year-old daughter when the incident happened, revealed she feared the worst after looking up to see the masked assailant with a 7in blade over her head after the light had been turned on.

The aggressor had an accomplice with him lurking on the stairs during the ordeal who silently ‘motioned’ at her – adding to the mum’s terror.

The 35-year-old was staying at her sister-in-law Angela Fletcher’s house in Winterslow Drive, Leigh Park, when the ambush happened just after 3am on Monday last week after the criminals got in through an unlocked backdoor.

Angela’s two daughters and boyfriend were also in the house at the time of the burglary that saw the thieves escape with two watches - Emporio Armani and Swarovski models - worth a combined value of £700.

Kirsty, of Lee-on-the-Solent, said: ‘A man came into the room where I was sleeping with my daughter and started saying: “Where’s the money? Where’s the jewellery?” I said: “We haven’t got any money.” He then left the room.

‘As he left the room I saw another man outside on the stairs who motioned at me with his hands to lie back down. I threw the duvet over my daughter's head in case the first man came back in the room.

‘He did come back into the room and started asking for jewellery again before saying: “It’s up to you what you do, if you want to phone the police. But if I was you I wouldn’t.’

The bizarre exchange was further reinforced by the attacker’s demeanour. ‘He seemed frightened about what he was doing,’ Kirsty said.

‘He seemed quite nervous about it all. Maybe they were drug users who were desperate.’

Kirsty said the man was wearing a dark Hugo Boss hoodie with a scarf pulled over his face but said his eyes were dark and he had ‘defining wrinkles’ with a ‘common distinctive voice’.

He was also wearing grey tracksuit bottoms and purple latex gloves.

The other burglar was said to be wearing a dark hoodie and black gloves.

The men are thought to have escaped after jumping over a neighbour’s wall into the adjacent Danebury Close.

Kirsty, who has since conducted her own enquiries into the aggravated burglary, has since discovered there was CCTV of a van speeding off from nearby Well Meadow 10 minutes after the incident.

Speaking of the ordeal, Kirsty added: ‘It was scary. So many things were going through my mind but I didn’t want to shout and wake the others up in case it panicked the men into hurting everyone.

‘It has left us all petrified, especially our daughters. We now have alarms on the windows and doors. Whenever I close my eyes at night all I can see is his face and hear his voice.

‘We just want them caught. We can’t have people running around the streets doing this to people. Someone must know something.’

A police spokeswoman said they were ‘investigating’ the ‘aggravated burglary’.

‘It is reported two men entered the address carrying knives with their faces covered and threatened the occupant,’ she said.

‘It is reported the men stole two watches from the address. No one has been arrested at this time.

‘Enquiries are ongoing and we are following up all lines of enquiry available to us.’

Anyone with information is asked to call 101 and quote 44200324491.

SEE ALSO: Man arrested and heroin seized

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

Thank you for reading this story. The dramatic events of 2020 are having a major impact on our advertisers and thus our revenues.

The News is more reliant than ever on you taking out a digital subscription to support our journalism. You can subscribe here for unlimited access to Portsmouth news and information online.

Every subscription helps us continue providing trusted, local journalism and campaign on your behalf for our city.