Double ordeal for 'petrified' mum

Phyllis Dawson is scared thugs will return to her house. Photo / Doug Sherring

Last year, Phyllis Dawson was held at gunpoint in her home and forced to watch her son beaten with a baseball bat.

This month, she was "petrified" to find armed thugs standing in her living room again.

The 59-year-old now keeps her West Auckland house locked and the curtains drawn all day, after being the victim of two home invasions in just eight months.

Dawson, who suffers from a heart condition, is fearful the men will return. But she told the Herald on Sunday she refused to move out of her home of 17 years.

"If they can come back twice, they can come back again, I'm sure of it," she said. "Why should I let little toads like that put me out of my home?"

In November last year, three men armed with baseball bats and a rifle raided her house and beat her teenage son, Daniel.

"They threw him into the chair and then hit him across the legs with the bat," Dawson said.

"When I saw them hit him across the legs with the bat I was about to cry. I said 'what do you boys want?' They pointed the gun at my face and the one beside me lifted the baseball bat higher above my head and told me to shut up, so I did."

The gunman demanded Dawson go to her bedroom while they ransacked her son's room, stealing a PlayStation 3, laptops and cellphones.

Then, three weeks ago, two men stormed into Dawson's living room again, holding a gun to her head and demanding she lie on the floor.

"I said, 'I'm not f****** lying down' ... they wanted to know where my son was but he wasn't here," she said.

"I guess they would have wanted to secure him too, they wouldn't want him coming from his room with something in his hand."

Dawson said her fear quickly turned into anger and she began to "screech" when they attempted to steal the last significant thing she owned - a DVD player.

She was baffled over why she had been targeted twice but gave police the names of two "neighbourhood kids" she invited to stay with her a few years ago.

"Both those boys would be the type to certainly piss people off and maybe they've given the address here."

Detective Rachel Carran said they had not ruled out the possibility the two incidents were linked.

If you have any information, you can contact crime stoppers on 0800 555111