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£2,000 reward to catch thugs who stabbed disabled woman in own home


A LIVERPOOL businessman is offering a £2,000 reward to anyone who helps convict yobs who slashed a disabled woman and killed her dog.

Kerri Delacruz was horrifically targeted by hooded thugs who entered her Dovecot home and knifed her chest, face, back and hands in an hour-long ordeal.

A 45-year-old entrepreneur was so shocked by the mother-of-three’s plight, he decided to put forward a financial incentive.

The move is backed by Crimestoppers and Merseyside police, who are hunting the teenage gang who butchered Ms Delacruz’s pet Yorkshire terrier Willow, hanging it on a stake in her garden in Snowberry Road.

The businessman, who runs a firm in Knotty Ash and wished to remain anonymous, said: “I was so sickened by what happened to this poor woman.

“The level of cowardice was shocking and those responsible have no standards. They are the sort of people who would stab each other in the back.”

The money will only be paid out if a prosecution goes ahead.

Ms Delacruz, 38, has moved out of her Snowberry Road home, which was boarded up by council bosses.

The victim, who walks with a crutch and has degenerative joint disease, was confronted by the gang - aged between about 14 and 21 - who forced her back into her home.

Inside the house, the black-clothed youths took it in turns to use a 5in kitchen knife to repeatedly slash her while threatening to disfigure her.
Police are keeping a close eye on Snowberry Road following another violent incident about a fortnight ago.

A 27-year-old man was attacked with an axe or meat cleaver in nearby Altfinch Close, leaving him with serious facial injuries.

It is not the first time the Liverpool man has offered rewards in major criminal cases in the city.

He once offered £5,000 to help catch the killer of Andrew Jones, who died after being punched six years ago, and the reward was publicised on the BBC’s Crimewatch programme.

Anyone with information about the attack on Ms Delacruz should call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.

THE LIVERPOOL ECHO

How can peoole do this shocking

I find it saddening that people may only come forward because of the money. What happened to coming forward with information because it's the right thing to do?

I used to roll my eyes when I was younger when my Parents used to say "used to be able to leave your doors open....could walk the streets at any time of night" but My Gods I wish this was still true!!

Yes but was it really true that you could leave your door open and walk the streets safe at night?

Nothing is new under the sun. I was talking to one of the med reps in work the other day and he was saying that when he was in school someone pulled a knife in class and stabbed a fellow pupil. He hit his shoulder blade so the kid missed being fatal. But also this was a private school...in London...tres expensive...15 years ago

Thankfully there are still more decent people in this world who would come forward with information if they had it. What a reward would hopefully entice is for one scumbag to come forward and inform on an other scumbag. If we want to get back to a society were we can leave the doors open etc then the sentences handed out must reflect on the crime committed. Unfortunately to many do-gooders are involved in our judicial system, when these low life's are caught they get no more than a slap on the wrist.

Well this is the question MissG. Was it actually safer or is it just that things are more widely reported these days? I've worked in Private Boarding Schools and have seen some of the goings on.

Bert - I agree with you wholeheartedly on the do-gooders. The frustration is felt throughout the Judicial system, but hands are tied unfortunately. Until the Government decide that enough is enough and they allow tougher sentences, there isn't much the Judges and Magistrates can do. I can see why the Police get so frustrated sometimes - they do the leg work, arrest the perpetrator(s) only to find that the CPS drop the case due to lack of evidence or when it does get to court, for them to receive an extremely lenient sentence (if one at all).

I think you would have to go back 50 years or more when people felt safe to leave their doors unlocked and felt safe walking the streets at night. The level of crime has certainly increased, the type of crimes have changed and the way police react and respond to crime has also changed The examples i can call on, in 1958 when i was about 6years old my mother had a dress pinched off the washing line. CID officers attended that one along with a forensics officer who took a mould of a footprint in the garden left by the thief. I remember it well because he let me pour the plaster into it. In 1973 i had a set of ladders stole from my back yard, 2 CID officers came to that one and returned a week later to give me an update. In 2003 i had the window removed from the back of my van and over £1000 worth of tools stolen, I had to go to the police station with the undamaged window only to be told, no point looking for finger prints, they were probably wearing gloves and to be told you could look around second hand tool shops, you never know your luck. I don't know what the police figures per populace was in 58 compared to now but the way they handle crime has certainly changed.