Staunch Gwendoline Samson should be given an award, the 93 year old grandmother fought off an attacker at her Papakura home, and it wasn’t the first time she’d had the experience either.

We’re glad that she’s ok but disgusted that yet another old person has been attacked in their home in ‘safe’ New Zealand, we hope the police make an arrest soon.

from 3 News

“Police hunt man who attacked 93yo
Police are hunting a home invader who dragged a 93-year-old woman around her house before she managed to set off an alarm.

Gwendoline Samson, from South Auckland, says she was not going to give in easily – despite being four times her attacker’s age.

Ms Samson likes to enjoy the morning sun with a cup of tea on the deck next to her dining room. But it was outside her home that a stranger spotted her and followed her in. The man claimed he was looking for a lost dog, turning nasty when Ms Samson refused to be conned. The man dragged her into the bedroom, where he pinned her against a wall. In the struggle she managed to set off an alarm on her wrist and the man fled.

“I was not going to give in easily. So he got a punch in the ribs for his trouble,” says Ms Samson.

Ms Samson’s neice, Lorraine Prangley said the whole family are very proud of the way she reacted.

“She did a really brave act. If she had a stick she might have been better off, might have been able to defend herself better,” she says.

It is not the first time her Papakura home has been invaded.

Ms Samson lived with her sister until her death last year, and the pair of feisty grannies fought off a previous attacker under similar circumstances.

“Whether he was looking for money or going to do other things with my aunty I don’t know,” says Ms Prangley.

The family are improving security at the house and say they are ready should anyone try to harm Ms Samson again.”

We’ve said before that one may judge the character of a society by how it treats the weak, the vulnerable, the most easily forgotten. Abuse of the young and the old is widespread in NZ, recent attacks on elderly people include:

• A Racist attack on elderly man in Hastings

• Gaynor Alice White, 62, battered to death with a hammer by an intruder in her home in Parkland, Christchurch

• A 72 year old man left shaken and bruised after being robbed at gunpoint at his home in Beerescourt Rd Road, Hamilton

• An 82 year old woman kidnapped and robbed whilst shopping on W.Tamaki Road, Auckland

• Grandmother Barabara Julian, battered to death by an intruder in her Kaitaia home

• Lois Dear, 66, murdered and sexually assulted in her classroom at Tokoroa primary school

• An elderly woman was physically and sexually assulted in her Eltham home

• Retired teacher John Rowe, murdered by two teenage girls in his Opotiki home

• An 83 year old woman who was assaulted and her home set fire to in Howick

• An elderly couple who were hopsitalized after a home invasion in New Plymouth

• An elderly man kicked to the ground and assaulted by a truck driver in Manukau

• An 85 year old man badly beaten during a home invasion at his Bethesda Village retirement home in Wiri.

• 86 year old Patricia Burrows was left with a fractured pelvis, cuts and bruises after she was mugged in a Christchurch shopping mall

• Yin Ping Yang, 80, died following a savage attack during a home invasion in Manurewa East that lasted for several hours.

• A 99 year old woman who was sexually assaulted in her Palmerston North home and died in hospital