Woman violently mugged in Edgware: ‘I was sure I was going to die’

A Jewish woman has told of how she was violently mugged in Edgware on Friday, and has asked that the community keep a watch out for her mother’s ring which was stolen in the broad daylight attack.

Leslie Diamond, whose attackers struck as she walked beside Hale Lane, a main road, in Elmgate Gardens, this week paid tribute to those who came to her rescue, as she recalled the terrifying incident.

“One of them jumped on me from behind, threw me on the floor and was strangling me so hard I was sure I was going to die,” she said. “I could not breathe at all. I was punched in the chest. And they pulled the rings off my hand.”

She said the attackers made off with her mother’s wedding ring and her own engagement ring, which police believe they may now try to pawn in a local shop, but thanks to bystanders, two of the men were later caught.

“They were disturbed by a wonderful old couple who came out of their house, and they ran before they could do more, and left me lying there,” she said. “I would love to thank the wonderful man in his van who checked on me and then followed them, informed the police, and helped catch two of them.”

Diamond added: “Thank God, I’m only bruised, cut, battered and traumatised, but still alive.”

She asked those in or connected to the jewellery trade to keep an eye out for her mother’s ring, which she described as “yellow gold and platinum with an inscription on the inside”.