Elderly Brothers Beaten Up In Their Own Home

Two brothers in their 80s yesterday described how they attempted to fight off armed robbers who beat them in their own home. In the latest horrific crime against the elderly, three masked men, armed with a gun and a bat, entered the brothers’ house n Drumaness, where they proceeded to threaten the two brothers, Bill and Tommy Killen, ransack their home and flee with a sum of cash.

One of the brothers was injured after being struck on the head with the bat during the robbery, but he did not require hospital treatment. Tommy Killen told the Belfast Telegraph:

“At about 9pm the both of us were sitting at the fire. I was having a smoke and my brother was sitting here. Everything was peace and tranquillity and suddenly I heard the door opening. I saw these great big men, three of them, with great big cudgels, dressed from head to toe in black with their faces covered with masks and rubber boots on them. The leader says, ‘Where’s the money?’ – no shouting or cursing or anything. When they weren’t going to get the money they ransacked everything. “

Mr Killen said the ordeal lasted about 15 minutes. “They took some money. They weren’t given it – they found it themselves, ” he said. Mr Killen described how he tried to drive off the robbers himself. “I keep a little club inside the scullery and I banged one of them across the face with it. The three of them smashed me over the face with the cudgels,” he said.

He and his brother, Billy, later discovered that their phone and fax wires had been cut and they went to a nearby house to seek help. Four men were last night being quizzed by police about the attack. The men were arrested during police operations following the robbery.