A YOUNG mother was punched in the head in an unprovoked attack outside a doctors' surgery in Croydon.
The 24-year-old, who asked not to be named, was standing outside St James Medical Centre, in St James's Road, last Friday afternoon when she was hit in the back of the head by a passerby.
The man then repeatedly slapped her, ignoring her attempts to hand over her phone to continue his attack.
He fled and was later found, with the help of the police helicopter, hiding in a nearby garden.
"I had just come out of the doctors with my boy and I rang my mum up to tell her he needed physiotherapy on his feet," said the woman.
"This bloke started walking past me. He looked like he was in a rush so I moved my son out of the way.
"I went began to repeat what I said to my mum and suddenly I was punched in the back of my head. I turned around and the man said: 'What did you say to me?'
"I told him I had been on the phone and he just started hitting me. He was slapping me, like a woman does in a cat fight. I tried to give him my phone, but he didn't even want it. He just wanted to fight me.
"As we ran off, he did too. By an act of God, a police car came down the road so we waved it down. A witness jumped in the police officer's car to show where the man had run to. The helicopter was called out and he was found hiding in some gardens."
The woman, who suffered bruises, was with her four-year-old son at the time of the attack, which happened at around 4pm. The incident has left him traumatised.
"Every noise in our flat makes him cry now and he won't leave the house with me," she said.
"I can't even get him any help. I received a call from Victim Support asking whether I wanted any help and I said I was fine, but my son did. They asked how old he was and, when I said he was four, they said he was too young. He can talk better than most adults I know."
A 20-year old man was arrested on suspicion of actual bodily harm and taken to a south London police station. He was later bailed until August 25.
