Shocking footage has captured the sickening moment a sales assistant was allegedly knocked out by an accused shoplifter, leaving her with permanent brain damage.
Grandmother-of-seven Cecilia Bird suffered eight skull fractures, a fractured eye socket and bleeding on her brain after the incident at Silly Solly’s Discount Store in western Sydney.
Ms Bird, 58, was watching the CCTV camera footage at the Mt Druitt store when she saw suspicious activity just after 3pm on May 16.
She went to the front door and asked to inspect a woman’s bags, when she was allegedly struck and immediately knocked unconscious.
‘My daughter thought I was dead, some of my colleagues thought I was dead,’ she told A Current Affair.
When she woke up four days later in the intensive care unit at Westmead Hospital, Ms Bird had lost her memory; unable to even remember the word for a cup.
‘I was actually told by the doctors that I was very lucky,’ she said.
A 25-year-old woman has since been charged with reckless grievous bodily harm, assault and shoplifting.
Paul Zahra of the n Retailers Association said there has been a disturbing increase in cases of shop workers being physically and verbally abused.
‘This is the worst I’ve ever seen it. Frontline workers should feel safe working in a shop and clearly that’s not the case,’ he said.
In the past year there have been around 700,000 incidents of shop workers being subjected to abuse.
‘Many of those actually involved some form of aggression and some form of actual violence,’ Mr Zahra said.
Ms Bird said she was not the only victim of the incident and the injuries.
‘It’s not just me, it’s everyone around. My family and my work colleagues, they all experienced it,’ she said.
‘It’s a ripple effect on all of them. All of them are affected now by this.’
The grandmother has now recovered sufficiently to return to work, but has been told she has permanent and irreversible brain damage, which affects her speech and memory.
She wants to keep working, though, and to see safety improved for workers.
‘What I do want to stop is the abuse on retail workers… that’s what needs to stop,’ she said.
‘We are human beings just trying to do our job and do the best for everyone.’