Daughter defends parents from thugs
Aug 19 2008 by Dan Warburton, The Journal
A DAUGHTER has described how she pleaded with thieves to stop attacking her elderly parents. Jill Cheesmond said she had shouted at the two thugs as they assaulted the couple at their farm.
Her father, Edward Cheesmond, 70, known as Ned, confronted the intruders as they attempted to raid his car and was beaten with planks in his farmyard near the Broom Hill Day Spa, a health farm near Ferryhill in County Durham, at 6.30pm on Sunday.
When his wife, Valerie, also 70, went to defend him she too was attacked.
Paramedics were called to the isolated property and the couple were treated for cuts, bruises and shock.
Last night Jill, who works at the beauty clinic, told The Journal she had pleaded for the attackers to stop.
She said: “I was there when it happened.
“It was in the yard of the farm just up from the spa and I was shouting at them to stop. I was telling them that they were 70 years old, but they just carried on and wouldn’t stop.
“We haven’t slept much because the police were here until late and then they came early in the morning to ask us more questions.
“My mother is very shaken and really upset. It makes me teary just to talk about it because it was quite traumatic.”
The intruders stole property before fleeing, but a police helicopter was used in an attempt to track them.
Two men, aged 18 and 19, were charged with affray and released on unconditional bail. They are due to appear before magistrates on Wednesday next week.
Detective Inspector Simon Orton described the incident as a cowardly act of violence.
He said: “This was a cowardly attack on two vulnerable members of the community.
“The speed of our response is indicative of the seriousness with which we police the farming community and respond to their concerns.”
Last night people in the tight-knit community of Ferryhill said they were shocked by the incident.
One neighbour, who did not wish to be identified, said: “It’s terrible. You don’t really expect things like that to happen, especially not in a place like that.
“The farm is a beautiful place and so whoever did it must just have thought that it would be easy to get away.
“It’s quite frightening that they would attack people like that though.”
Farm has dark history
HIGH Hill House Farm was once the scene of a triple murder.
In 1682, John Brass, 17, and his two sisters, Jane, 19, and Elizabeth, 10, were murdered by their father’s servant Andrew Mills, who was later executed.
More than three centuries later Jill Cheesmond opened the spa with her parents Edward and Valerie and brother-in-law and sister Mark and Dawn Larn. Set up in 2004, the spa offers a range of treatments, including massages, facials, manicures, pedicures, skin treatments and Pilates exercise classes.
Previously, the site was home to a herd of organic pedigree Holstein dairy cows. But after foot-and-mouth disease devastated farming in the region, Jill’s brother Paul and his family emigrated to Canada to set up a dairy herd there and most of the cows were sold.
Jill and Dawn were both keen to help their father keep the family farm going, but since both had pursued careers outside farming, they persuaded their father to diversify.
