Woman hurt as barrier thrown from car park
POLICE have released this CCTV image of youths in a Paignton car park, taken on the day a woman was hit on the head by a barrier thrown off the roof.
The victim, 24-year-old Gemma Roper, was walking home when she was struck by the 8ft plastic object.
Police are appealing to parents: "Are these your children?"
Det Sgt Steve Fleetwood said: "Somebody knows what happened and I'm hoping these pictures will make people talk.
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"They could help with our inquiries and we can find out who was responsible."
He says that while the quality of the image may not be high, somebody may still recognise the people in them.
Mrs Roper says the incident has left her too frightened to walk down the street.
The 24-year-old says she is now finding it difficult to look after her disabled husband and carry out her duties as his prime carer because her headaches are so bad.
She was treated for head and spine injuries at Torbay Hospital after the incident in Garfield Road, and is now back home in Paignton.
Doctors have told her there does not appear to be any lasting damage after undertaking a CT scan and other tests.
But she is still taking medication to relieve the pain.
She said: "I was coming home from a friend's house and walking past the multi-storey car park when I heard a loud bang and saw one of these barriers fall near me.
"Then the next thing I know I felt a bang on my head. I looked down and there was another one on the ground. I realised it had hit me.
"I was shocked and walked across the road, then collapsed in the car park area. Then I rang my husband."
Doctors treated her concussion and an x-ray could find no serious damage.
But she had to return to hospital after feeling sick and was kept in overnight for the scan.
"The headaches are very bad," she said.
All she could see on the roof of the car park at the time was a pair of arms at the top, suggesting the barrier had been thrown.
The incident happened at about 2.30pm on Monday, May 7.
Anyone who has information that could help the police should call 101 and quote crime reference FP/12/12/91
Comments
by Chunder123
Thursday, May 17 2012, 11:35AM
“they need to install secure fencing to stop people throwing any object at all from car parks. THe people who run these cars parks should maintain public safety and they shoudl install grids to stop people from throwing stuff of or prevent objects from falling. it needs to be done now. protect the publicn from falling objects. Look at all the protection cars get and people are more important than worthless machines”