Elderly Living In Fear As Yobs Attack Care Home

Elderly and disabled residents living in a care home were left terrified by teenage thugs who smashed their windows with rocks.

Frail residents were left cowering in their rooms during the attacks, which saw more than a dozen windows shattered and thousands of pounds of damage caused at the Thistle Foundation in Craigmillar.

Other victims were woken as youths pelted their windows with stones and showered their rooms with splintered glass. The vandals were spotted making their getaway across the roofs of buildings in the estate after bombarding the home in the middle of the night on Saturday and Sunday.

The youths have been accused of “treating it like a game” by trying to evade security wardens before launching missiles at their targets.

Four windows in the communal leisure centre were also broken at the home, which is undergoing a £6 million facelift to protect vulnerable residents.

The incident comes just months after charity bosses were forced to step up security patrols at the complex in Niddrie Mains Road following an earlier wave of teen attacks.

Just months ago, more windows were smashed and pets were struck with stones thrown by children from the neighbouring estate.

Andy Dick, who has lived at the Thistle Foundation for more than 25 years and is confined to a wheelchair, said that residents were “living in fear” of the vandals.

He said: “We have had teenagers throwing rocks through people’s windows over the past couple of nights and they also threw stones and rocks at our leisure centre, which smashed most of the windows there too.

“They must have caused thousands of pounds of damage and it’s just lucky that none of the residents were using the pool or the gym at the time or they could have been badly hurt.

“They treat the whole thing like a game.”

The Thistle Foundation is a former care home for disabled ex-servicemen that now provides accommodation for elderly and disabled people in the area.

Charity officials confirmed that there had been windows broken over the weekend although they could not say exactly how much the damage would cost to repair.

Sally Cameron, the care home’s marketing manager, said: “The issue of vandalism is a serious problem and we are doing everything we can to deal with it.”

A police spokesman said: “Some youths were spotted escaping on the roofs of buildings in the estate by residents afterwards and we are urging anyone who saw the incident to come forward.”