Thugs have OAP too scared to spend Christmas at home

Barbara Becman, left, and Morag, who has been attacked in her own stairwell.

Shelagh Brooks, known locally as Morag, says she has been assaulted, spat on, and even urinated on by aggressive people loitering in the stairwell on Harbour Place, Burntisland.

The 68-year-old was forced to flee the property and wasn’t able to spend Christmas in her own home.

Morag said: “It’s just horrible. When it first started, they were all sitting with their cider bottles and they were off their heads. I couldn’t get past them.

Some people have been sleeping in the close.

“One asked me for money, I said ‘I’m sorry, I don’t have any’, and that’s when the abuse started. One of them spat on me. One grabbed my hair so I couldn’t get away from them.”

Her friend Barbara Becman (61) said: “She’s too afraid to go home. It’s just horrendous, she can’t even enter her stair without getting hit.

“One of them peed on her. She came crying out of there. She’s absolutely defenceless.

“Lots of them all come to the flats, sometimes there’s 10 or 12 of them in the stair.

“I went down with Morag to the flat. They dropped a bottle behind me to try to scare me.

“She’s phoned the police once. Others have too and they say they don’t come for two hours.”

People have also been sleeping in the stairwell.

Morag said: “I don’t want to go back to that building. We need to get them out of there.”

And Morag is grateful for the friends who have been helping her while she is unable to go home.

“I’ve been couch hopping. I’ve been staying with friends,” she said. “I don’t know what I’d do without them.”

Barbara added: “The whole of Burntisland will look out for her. There are a lot of people who know her. She’s a good soul who hasn’t harmed anyone.”

Gordon Hope, housing team leader for the Kirkcaldy Area said: “We’re aware of this situation and it is currently under investigation. As soon as we have sufficient evidence of anti-social behaviour we will be able to take further action.”

A Police Scotland spokesman said officers are aware of reports of antisocial behaviour adding: “Community officers are dedicated to tacking antisocial behaviour in the area as a priority.”