Junkies lay siege to apartment block

Residents of a Darwin Housing Commission complex are under siege from junkies, it was claimed last night.

Former soldier Tim Buckley, 47, said he was “almost kicked to death” when he caught an addict breaking into his home.

“The bloke went mad and kicked me across the floor,” he said.

“I was begging for my life.

“I was punched, my head hit the wall and I was knocked unconscious.

“When I woke up there was blood all over my face – the blood was pumping out from a hole in my head.”

His attacker, Trystan Ellis, 18, was jailed last week for a minimum of six years.

Mr Buckley was targetted because he uses the morphine-based painkiller Capanol after being badly injured in a car accident.

He said he had been threatened and pestered repeatedly for his medication since moving to the housing complex on Progress Dve, Nightcliff.

Mr Buckley said he had been offered stolen property in exchange.

“I’ve had total strangers come up here banging on my door,” he said.

“One stupid woman came back a day or two later with a fish finder that she’d stolen saying, ‘help me, help me, I’m sick’.

“I told her to p… off and she went off at me.”

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org
Pubdate: 7th April 2004
Source: Northern Territory News
Author: Edith Bevin
Url: http://www.ntnews.com.au
Email: ntnmail@ntn.newsltd.com.au
Copyright: 2004 Northern Territory News