A distressed son has revealed how his 83-year-old father defended his elderly wife from a machete-wielding masked intruder who broke into their western Sydney home
Patrick Bogue, 83, woke to the sound of shuffling in his Merrylands home in the early hours of Thursday morning after the attacker had broke in through a window.
After calling out for his wife Patricia , who was convalescing in a separate bedroom, Mr Bogues was confronted by a masked man armed with a frightening knife.
The elderly grandfather wrestled with the knifeman before Mr Bogues fought him off with the intruder’s own Nike sneaker.
The attacker – described as ‘tall and of slender build with dark skin, aged in his 20s and softly spoken’ – then fled through the window he had smashed to get in.
The sneaker has since been handed to detectives for forensic testing.
Though Mr Bogues had no way of knowing at the time, his was the fourth of at least five homes broken into across the tight-knit suburb by the intruder between 4am and 6.20am on Thursday.
Police allege the sex-crazed attacker attempted to molest another elderly woman before ‘sexually touching’ another in a separate home invasion.
One of the two elderly victims told Daily Mail she had since replaced locks on her doors and felt ‘sorry’ residents had been made to feel unsafe in her home.
She said she had not been touched by the intruder but said he had taken off with several credit cards.
An elderly man who lives on the same block said his home was also targeted by the intruder.
It was early on the morning of his 96th birthday when he woke to a ‘strange banging sound’.
After laying awake for some time, he let his dog out to his front yard before returning to sleep.
Some time later, the police arrived and pointed out his fly screen had been slashed and a separate door screen had been removed.
The man said he did not believe the man broke into his home, but was still shaken up by the events.
‘I just hope they catch the grimy bugger, it’s just bloody terrible,’ he said.
‘It’s a good area. A thing like this just shouldn’t happen.’
Patrick’s son, Eamon, was clearing glass from the floor of his parents home when he said he was ‘grateful’ his mother, who had not awoken during the invasion, avoided being assaulted by the intruder.
‘Mum’s been crook so she’s been sleeping on her own,’ he said while holding back tears.
‘I just think of the two women who were sexually assaulted.
‘I keep thinking, if he’d gotten into where mum was sleeping, he could’ve gotten at mum.’
Eamonn said his parents had discovered chocolate wrappers in a sitting room only feet from where Patricia had been sleeping and that he had ‘roughed up’ the linen closet and pantry.
‘Yeah, we figure he could’ve been in here for some time before dad caught on to him,’ he said.
‘I just keep thinking how much worse it could have gone’.
While Patricia was unscathed, Patrick has since undergone treatment to remove shattered glass from his feet after pursuing the intruder over the smashed window.
Aemon said his father, an Irish-n, had been planning to dance at a St Patrick’s Day parade but was no longer able due to his injuries.
Patrick was pictured collecting a new window from a nearby store on Friday.
A nearby resident, Mahmoud, whose surveillance cameras were unable to film the intruder, said Patrick was known to love dancing.
‘They’re lovely people,’ he said.
Police were seen methodically combing streets in the area on Friday as the alleged home invader remains at large.
A spokesperson for NSW Police said the man had yet to be identified though a ‘number of items have been seized for forensic examination’.