Woman's carjacking terror

An interior designer told today how she feared for her life as she was carjacked at gunpoint yards from her flat in one of London’s wealthiest neighbourhoods.

Lucy Eadie pulled up to traffic lights when a man jumped off the pillion seat of a motorcycle and into her £50,000 car. He pulled out a gun, pointed it at her head and ordered her to drive.

Ms Eadie was forced to run a red light before becoming stuck in a traffic jam. She jumped out and ran for her life, screaming for help as her attacker sped off in her new Volkswagen Touareg.

Today she told how she thought she was going to die during the early evening attack on Tuesday in Collingham Gardens.

The 38-year-old said: “It was just pure terror. I have never been so scared in my whole life. I thought he was going to kill me.

“All I could see was a motorbike helmet filling my window as he peered into my car to see inside. He obviously saw I was a woman on my own and decided to attack. He jumped off the back of the bike, grabbed the passenger door and jumped in behind me. Then he pulled out a gun.

“He screamed at me, ‘F***ing drive or I will blow your f***ing head off.’ I was so freaked. I kept asking him, ‘Do you want money, my phone?’ but he just kept yelling, ‘Drive or I’ll f***ing kill you.’ Then I realised he wanted
my car — I couldn’t believe it.

“All I could think was that I was not safe if I stayed in the car. I had to make a run for it. I jumped out and just screamed — people thought I was mad. By the time I turned around, my car had gone.”

She flagged down a driver on Cromwell Road who took her to a friend’s house in Notting Hill, where she called police.

Ms Eadie bought the dark grey Volkswagen six months ago after her Mercedes CLK was stolen from a street in Kensington.

It was not her family’s first experience of violent crime. She added: “My nephew was attacked in Wimbledon by a 15-strong gang wielding metal pipes who left him and his friends with broken noses and arms. Then my brother’s home was burgled in the middle of the night while he, his wife and his three children slept upstairs.”

Ms Eadie said: “All those attacks on me and my family have been in the last couple of months. Crime is completely out of control. Where are all these extra police officers we’re supposed to have on the street?

“What will happen next time? Just down the road [financier] John Monckton was murdered at his home. People around here are scared stiff. Nothing is being done about it.” A Scotland Yard spokesman said Notting Hill’s robbery team had launched an investigation into the car theft, though no arrests had yet been made. Anyone with informat ion should call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Government figures show violent crime in London in the three months to June this year was four per cent up on the same period last year.