Attacker bites chunk out of mom

Margate - A Durban woman will have to undergo cosmetic surgery after her Margate holiday turned into a nightmare when an attacker bit a piece of flesh from her cheek.

The chunk of flesh that was chomped out of her cheek was the size of a R5 coin

Kim Bailey, 42, says she and her 15-year-old daughter, Bronwyn, were staying at her parents' home in Margate when the incident occurred.

"I try to keep fit and went for beach walks along the sea in the afternoons.

I was stretching my leg muscles one afternoon when I saw a man approaching.

"When he reached me, he grabbed me without any warning and threw me to the ground.

"He grabbed my hand and pulled me to bushes along the road. Everything happened in seconds."

Assaulted, beaten and cursed

Bailey said she screamed, but apparently no one heard her.

Her attacker dragged her about 15m through the bushes to the beach.

She was assaulted, beaten and cursed.

On the beach, the man took a screwdriver out of his pocket and threatened to stab her.

Bailey said she initially tried to calm her attacker and pleaded with him not to hurt her.

"He grabbed my cellphone and repeatedly demanded money, but I didn't have anything on me.

"I took off an expensive diamond ring and gave it to him in the hope he would leave me alone, but he just continued assaulting me."

She said the worst part was when another man walked past, saw what was happening, but wouldn't help her.

"I pleaded with the man to help me, but he just looked at my attacker, said something to him and ran away."

Bailey said her attacker then dragged her to an open space in the bushes and tried to rape her.

"He pushed me flat on my back and tore off my shirt. My bra was in tatters.

"I then started to fight like a person possessed. I kicked and hit him and also grabbed him between the legs.

"In the fight, he bit off this huge chunk out of my cheek and spat it on the sand.

"I managed to free myself and ran for my life along the beach away from him."

Bailey said her attacker followed her initially, but he fled into the bush when she approached a couple who helped her.

Unaware of what her mother was going through, her daughter and two girlfriends were walking on the same road and minutes later the same man attacked them.

Bronwyn said she and the two girls, Storm and Page, whom she had met in Margate a few days before the incident, were walking on the pavement when the man rushed at them from the bushes alongside the road.

Said he was 'joking around'

"He grabbed one of the girls around the neck and demanded money.

"Why I did it, I don't know, but I rushed him on the spur of the moment and pushed him away from my friend. All three of us ran away."

Bronwyn said the man shouted at them, saying he was just "joking around".

After running a short distance, the girls met up with Bronwyn's shocked and bloodied mother.

Both mother and daughter were treated for shock in hospital.

http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,6119,2-7-1442_1968618,00.html