Journalist's car attacked (From Gazette Series)

Journalist's car attacked

A FORMER war-correspondent says she no longer feels safe in her own home after an attack on her Landrover left it damaged beyond repair.

Tamsin Newman, from Wotton-under-Edge, returned to her Old Town home on New Year's Eve after a night of celebrations to find the Landrover Discovery she owned had been attacked with a brick.

The damage to the vehicle was so severe it has been declared a write-off.

Miss Newman, 37, believes the attack on her car was more than just new year celebrations getting out of hand and that there was malicious intent behind the incident.

She told the Gazette: "To get to our house or more specifically where we keep our Landrover you have to go around the back, through Parklands and climb over a five-bar gate.

"The damage wasn't just someone throwing a brick to smash one window. The car looks like it has been consistently battered for a period of time.

"The police told us it looked like a real act of nastiness. Whoever did it really went to town."

Miss Newman, who is a journalist and publisher for financial papers, has two young daughters aged four and 11. Both daughters were at home when the incident happened and it is their safety that Miss Newman is now concerned for.

"Both my daughters were in the house when it happened. They were being looked after by my mother.

"I'm just grateful whoever did this damage didn't turn on the house because if they had thrown one of those bricks through a house window who knows what might have happened."

She added: "After it happened I moved myself and my two daughters out of the house for two days. We left my partner here and went to stay with my parents in Wiltshire.

"As a journalist I've seen a lot of things. I was once a war correspondent in Croatia and I was fine there but now I find myself more frightened to stay in my own home in Wotton of all places."

Gloucestershire Police are aware of the incident but as of yet no one has come forward with any information.

Miss Newman said: "The worst thing is we think we know who did it, we just can't prove it, so anyone with any information should please come forward."

Anyone who can help with the inquiry should contact Gloucestershire Police on 0845 090 1234 quoting incident number 428 for January 1 or ring Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.