Doncaster carer had blurred vision after oil attack

The woman, who did not want to be named, said she feared she had been sprayed with acid, as she was left with blurred vision in one eye after the incident in Bentley.

“I was out walking with a service user when a small silver or grey coloured car pulled up alongside us. There were about four or five young lads in the car - I’d say they were in their late teens or early twenties,” she said.

“The one in the front passenger side just said ‘excuse me’, then got out a bottle and sprayed me with what looked like cooking oil. Then they drove off and I could hear them laughing.

“The oil went full blast in my face. I didn’t know what it was at first.

“It had gone in my eye and on my clothes and in my hair. I’ve washed my clothes now, but they are still stained. They are ruined.

“It was frightening, at first I thought it might have been acid that had been thrown on me. I was shocked.”

The woman added: “My eye started watering and was stinging. I couldn’t see properly out of that eye for the next 24 hours, but it is OK now and my vision has come back fully.

“I called my doctor, but he said I would be OK because my eye was watering - which meant it was getting rid of what was in there .

“Luckily, the service user was walking on the inside of the pavement so most of it hit me and not her, but she is wary now.

“She wants more than one person to go the shop with her and on the day she was upset and angry about what had happened. She shouldn’t feel like that.

“I went to a local shop and asked them if they had any CCTV footage of the street, but they didn’t.

“I’ve been a support worker for almost a year and nothing like this has ever happened to me before. I walk up and down that street quite often as well, we got to the takeaway, or just for a walk. I’ve never seen anything like that happen there.

“This won’t stop me doing my job and it hasn’t put me off walking down Askern Road, but I will be wary of stopping now if anybody else pulls up next to me in a car.

“I hope the police catch the people who did this - I think they are idiots, but they shouldn’t be doing this.”

A South Yorkshire Police spokesman said: “At about 3.15pm, two women were walking in Bentley when a grey car pulled up alongside them with a group of youths inside.

“One of the people in the car is then said to have sprayed one woman with an unknown substance.

“No-one was injured as a result of the incident.”

n Witnesses or anyone with information have been asked to call the police on 101 quoting incident number 685 of June 18.