The daughter of a 76-year-old pensioner who has been left with horrific injuries following a brutal attack by four intruders in her home has made a public appeal for information.
Mary Coulter is recovering in hospital with serious head injuries, two broken arms and cuts across her face after a group of men broke into her North Lanarkshire home more than a week ago, attacking her with a knife and a cricket bat.
During the attack Mrs Coulter fled into the street to avoid the men, but they followed her and continued the assault, the BBC reported. Her attackers only ran off after neighbours heard her screams.
Her daughter, Helen Coulter, has called on people with information to come forward.
She said mother was "dearly loved" by her family and described how devastating the "cowardly" attack had been.
"Mum is a defenceless, elderly woman who has never hurt anyone. Now she is severely scarred for the rest of her life.
"If you have any information, please do the decent thing" she appealed.
Helen Coulter appealed for information
A £5,000 reward has been offered by Crimestoppers charity for information leading to a conviction. Mrs Coulter's attackers have been described as white men wearing hooded tops, with scarves over their faces. One is described as being "particularly heavily built."
The attack was carried out around 5.20am on 22 March.
Although Detective Insp John Lamb said that the pensioner was now improving daily, he said the ferocity of the attack had left him "almost speechless."
He added to Helen Coulter's appeal, asking for occupants of a white van that had been parked in Gourlay Drive, to come forward. Detectives have ruled out robbery as a possible motive for the attack.
Mary Coulter's son Ronnie and grandson Andrew were among three men cleared of killing Asian waiter Surjit Singh Chhokar in 1998. Andrew, 30, lives nearby with his mother Helen. Police are investigating whether Mary Coulter was not the person the thugs meant to attack.
However local sources told the Daily Record that her attack was "unlikely" to be anything to do with the Chokkar case, which has recently been reopened after changes to double jeopardy rules.