It was a time of serving in the commandos and being called up for town patrols and Saturday shooting practice. In some ways I was prepared for any eventuality and of course being much younger at the time, lent to a certain feeling of immortality which is relatively common with the young.
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All this serves as an introduction to what happened on a normal weekend that I certainly would never have foreseen. We had spent the evening like many others watching TV and had turned in for the night. I had just fallen asleep when I heard someone pounding on the door and heard a women’s hysterical cries which woke me very suddenly. I remember a cold feeling of shock settling over me and I realised that something dreadful must of happened. My wife woke as well and after pulling on a pair of slippers and a long shirt I rushed to the door and opened it.
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There was my neighbour’s wife in a state of total panic. She finally managed to tell me that they had come home late from an evening out and on entering the house her husband had been attacked by a burglar who had broken in. The event seems to have occurred as follows. The burglar got into the house via the back entrance, he had taken certain items and had put them in the lounge to carry away later. The thief found a toy pistol and he was carrying this when her husband stumbled into him. A massive fight took place during which the husband grabbed a knife from the kitchen and fatally stabbed the intruder.
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All this was told to me between sobs, I hurried over next door in my shirt and slippers and came upon a sight that has never left me. The intruder was crumpled up on the lounge floor but what struck me the most was the amount of blood which had sprayed from his throat over the ceiling, the floor and had formed a pool next to the body. Eventually the police arrived and soon there were police vehicles all over, with flashing lights and neighbours in bedclothes peering through windows and standing in the street.
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Later we went back to bed but as you can imagine there was no sleep that night.
A case was opened and my neighbours had to appear in court, we were questioned and statements were taken from us. In the end the husband was found not guilty. As a result of the crime which had taken place the couple moved away fearing that they would be targeted by the thief’s friends.
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It wasn’t the end for me, about two weeks later I went to visit a friend of mine, in his study he pointed out a new carpet (second-hand) that he had got at a good price. I immediately recognised it by its distinctive patterns. The original had been much larger and had been cut down, obviously to get rid of the blood stains. It was my neighbour’s carpet. I never could tell my friend where his carpet had come from.