Bohemia Village Voice

Bill Third writes (Sep 2008)
A letter from the Sussex branch of the National Probation Service brought back terrifying memories to an 80 year old shopkeeper of an attempted robbery six years ago in which she was dowsed in petrol by her attacker who threatened to set her alight if she did not open the till.

The attacker Duncan Snape is due for release in September having served two thirds of his total 10 year prison sentence. Although he will be required to stay out of an exclusion zone, roughly from the needle point at the conjoining of Bohemia and London Roads to Chapel Park Road, the lady who was attacked, Dorothy Wood of Wood’s newsagents Bohemia Road, feels that the exclusion zone will allow Snape to get quite close to her.

“He is excluded from Newgate Road, but he could practically wave to me from the end of Amherst Road if he chose to,” she says.
Recalling the build-up to the ordeal that brought her close to death, Dorothy said,”He came into the shop early one morning in November 2001, just looked around and then left. Then he came in the next morning and I asked if I could help him. He said ‘no I’m only looking around.’ Then he came back on the morning of November 6th. carrying a petrol can. I repeated my question of the day before.”

He replied “Get back behind the counter woman,” and bowled me over. He then poured the petrol over me and produced a lighter, “Open the till or I’ll set you on fire,” he said. I refused, then a car door slammed loudly right outside the shop which gave him a fright and fortunately for me he ran off, although he did manage to snatch about £100”.  The lady who slammed the car door saw Snape making his escape up Newgate Road where he attempted to get into a car, and phoned the police on her mobile. Fortunately there was a patrol car nearby and he was arrested in Aldborough Road with the petrol can under his arm.

When Dorothy received the letter from the Probation Service in Shepherd Street, her first reaction was to say to her son Keith, “Right, that’s it. We are shutting up shop.” But despite a few sleepless nights she decided she wasn’t going to be frightened off, displaying the same tenacity and bulldog spirit which she has shown after attempted robberies in the past.
But questions remain: will pictures of Snape be posted in the exclusion zone, so that he can be identified if he does come into the area? And can it be extended to help Mrs Wood sleep a little easier in her bed at nights?
According to the probation service, it would be hard to get permission to use Snape’s picture – presumably to protect his privacy! And in any case there were so many people on exclusion orders that there would be posters all over the place. However, they would look into extending the exclusion zone so that Snape would not have sight of the shop.
Bill Third, who along with his wife Anna, delivers papers for Dorothy at the weekend, was so concerned about the situation that he dashed off the above press release which was picked up by the BBC and on Thursday August 14th, BBC South East Today’s reporter Paul Siegert and cameraman Dave Painter came along to Woods’ Newsagents on Bohemia Road and interviewed Dorothy for their evening programme. This attracted a lot of attention and the good news is that the proposed exclusion zone has now been extended to cover a much larger area – see map, right. Representatives from Sussex probation Victim Contact scheme called to see Mrs Wood to discuss this with her. It is stressed that the exclusion zone is only a proposal which will need confirmation.