Yahoo News Mum in charity sleep-out has face attacked by thug ‘demanding sex for a donation’
A mother-of-four was left with a bloodied and bruised face after she was attacked when she refused to have sex with a man in exchange for a charity donation.
Jen Ross was set upon by Craig Jones, 35, after he offered her a £500 donation to sleep with him.
Shopkeeper Ms Ross, 39, was thrown to the ground and suffered concussion and amnesia.
Her injuries were such that her three youngest children, Molly, six, Ethan, seven, and Thomas, 11, were unable to look at her without crying.
Ms Ross, from New Brighton, Wirral, was taking part in a 12-hour charity “sleep-out” for Wirral Homeless CIC and The Wirral Copper Jar on the streets of Liscard in March when the attack took place.
She said: ”The sleep-out is an annual event and it's always been a huge success, but this year turned into the night from hell.
"Jones walked past with a few friends and you could tell they had had a drink…
"A few hours later – at about 12am – he came back on his own and that's when he started getting really crude with me.
"He said he had won some money and was going to donate £500 to take me home for the night.
"I just backed away and ignored him but one of the other volunteers started leading him off towards the town centre.
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"We watched him come up behind the volunteer and grab him around the neck.
"There was a bit of a scuffle breaking out so I went to stand between them and break them up.
"I don't actually remember the blow but he grabbed me from behind and threw me to the ground.
"I touched my face and when I looked down my hands were covered in blood.
"I was so shocked that I didn't actually feel the pain at first – more than anything I just wanted to stay at the sleep-out and carry on like nothing had happened."
Ms Ross said the amnesia she was still suffering from left her too terrified to go out over fears that anyone she walked past could be her attacker and she would not know.
She added: "I'm normally an outgoing person and I'm always out and about doing something, but after the attack I went into myself.
"I'd drop the kids off at school and go straight back home and get into bed.
"I didn't want to answer the phone or the door or leave the house for anything. I couldn't face going anywhere near Liscard for weeks.
"What scared me the most was that I couldn't remember his face and I kept thinking every time I walked past someone in the street, 'It could be him.’
"The paranoia tormented me every time I went out.”
Jones, of New Brighton, pleaded guilty to two counts of assault at Wirral Magistrates’ Court and was sentenced to 17 weeks in prison on August 28.
After facing her attacker in court, Ms Ross has made plans to take part in future charity sleep-outs in aid of the homeless.
She said: "I wanted to show my attacker in the courtroom that he couldn't intimidate me any more.”
