Woman punched in face on way home from church

Margaret McCusker, 73, suffered a black eye and her glasses were bent. She told the Observer she had decided to tell her story "because people should know what is going on and be prepared..."

The pensioner was on her way home from Mass at St Mary Magdalene s Church at about noon on Sunday, when she was approached by two girls in De La Warr Road between the junctions with Church Street and Hastings Road.

Plucky Margaret, mother of seven, is just 5ft tall and was on her own. She said: "There was no one around. The place was deserted. These two young girls began to walk towards me. There was no room to pass on the pavement so I stood back to let them by.

"I was expecting them just to walk past. But one of them thrust her face into mine and said 'I don t like you! She said it so fiercely. Then she punched me in the eye. I said 'You horrible girl! but she just said 'Yes - aren t I? and stuck her tongue out.

"Her friend never batted an eyelid so she must have been used to her acting like that.

"My eye was very painful and was bleeding. My glasses had come off and I couldn t find them. There was blood running down my face.

"I was crying quite hysterically when some people came to help me. They found my glasses for me but they were bent.

"We went over to the newsagents in Church Street and they phoned the police for me."

Margaret said this week: "My eye looks much better now because I have had an ice-pack on it.

"The optician said that if they tried to straighten my glasses they might break. They cost 300 but I had nothing to lose. Fortunately, they have got them straight."

Margaret is a seasoned traveller. On a recent holiday in the USA she walked unmolested in Hollywood, Monterey, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

"I was walking around all these places which are supposed to be so dangerous. People couldn t have been nicer. You don t expect to get punched in the eye in Old Town, Bexhill, on a Sunday morning, do you?"

The attacker is described as white, 5ft 4ins with black hair, tied back, wearing a dark bomber jacket and black trousers, carrying a shoulder bag.

Anyone with any information is asked to contact Special Constable William Pillow at Bexhill Police Station-0845 60 70 999.

The Observer this week presented Margaret with a bouquet of flowers to help cheer her up.