THE TV reconstruction of burglars attacking an elderly former GP fell victim to Wimbeldon tennis coverage.
BBC 1 show Crimewatch on Monday night featured the raid on the home of 92-yearold William Benson in Stanley, County Durham, shortly after midnight on October 17, last year.
He was beaten and lay injured for nine hours before he was found by his carer, Cheryl Peacock.
The show was moved to BBC2 because of delayed coverage of Andy Murray’s tennis match at Wimbledon.
Detective Inspector Geoff Smith said: “We were aware there were a lot of people watching Andy Murray and they stayed with that programme rather than watch Crimewatch.”
He said he hoped people would watch the show on the Crimewatch website – bbc.co.
uk/crimewatch – and on the BBC iPlayer, which allows people to watch TV shows online.
Det Insp Smith said the show resulted in “a couple of useful calls” about the breakin.
One gave information about the manufacturer of a lamp thought to have been left at the house by the burglars when they fled.
Callers have also said that three men fitting the descriptions given out were in the Black Horse pub, which is near Dr Benson’s home, three weeks before the raid.
Det Insp Smith said: “We think they may have been there planning the attack so we are going to follow that lead up as soon as we can.”
Det Insp Smith said he was fairly certain that two of the gang only intended to carry out a burglary and had no plan to assault Dr Benson.
He said: “The violence started when they found the safe and could not get the keys. They were intent on getting into the safe because they thought there was a considerable amount of money.
“There wasn’t and Dr Benson didn’t know where the keys were, so he could not help them. That is when the assault took place.”
Det Insp Smith said he thought two gang members had “cold feet” about the level of violence inflicted on Dr Benson.
Anyone with information is urged to call Crimstoppers, anonymously, on 0800-555-111, or police on 0345-60-60-365.
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