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Deaf woman slept through five-hour gun siege
Last updated at 23:07pm on 20.07.07After laying siege to a house for five hours, police gave a final warning before storming the house where a gunman had been reported inside.
A police dog rushed upstairs and, finding a woman in bed, proceeded to sink its teeth into her arms.
But as armed officers surrounded a terrified Sonia Pellow, they realised two things. First, she wasn't a gunman.
Second, she was deaf and had been sleeping throughout the entire stand-off.
Yesterday Miss Pellow, 36, was still too afraid to return to her home in Hayle, Cornwall, after the ordeal, which followed a hoax call to police that a gunman was inside.
"I don't know what happened - I was asleep but then this dog was all over me," she said. "I got bitten on both of my arms. I was terrified."
Her father Esmond, 67, added: "Sonia is hard of hearing and is also very difficult to wake up once she is asleep. It looks like she was attacked by a crocodile, not a dog."
Miss Pellow was arrested on suspicion of unlawfully possessing a firearm but released without charge.
A spokesman for Devon and Cornwall Police said the matter would be investigated if she made a complaint.
He added: "Police negotiators had been at the scene trying to make contact with anyone inside the house for several hours."
Reader views (7)
I am the sister of this woman, the police were made aware that she was schizophrenic. She's not deaf as such but tends to shut off. I watched the siege from a neighbouring property. I myself offered to go in with officers as well as my mother and 1 or 2 of my sisters neighbours to check that she was even home, let alone brandishing a gun. The whole incident was unnecessary and a waste of taxpayers' money. Not only is my sister scarred physically she's now scarred mentally too. I hope all those involved are satisfied with what they've done, she was already schizophrenic, this could just push her right over the edge. There was no gunman and no gun just sick hoax callers.
- Tracey, Hayle, Cornwall, UK
To John. If a complaint is made they will investigate. If one isn't, then how do they know about it? How on earth could they have known it was a hoax call?
To Jimbo. The police go and knock on neighbours doors, and the gunman will see this (if there is one) and possibly shoot the neighbour. They couldn't chance putting anyone else in danger. They were there for hours, why didn't a neighbour come out?
To A Winsley, How would you have done it?
I'm not defendng their actions, but we haven't heard the whole story.
- Matt, Durham
So these cowboys will only investigate if a complaint is made! Outrageous...there should be a full investigation of how this could happen on the basis of a hoax call. I hope Miss Pellow gets a damn good solicitor and sues them for all she can get.
- John, Harrogate, UK
Didn't the Police ask neighbors who lived there? If they had they most likely would have learned a deaf person was inside.
- Jimbo, USA
It's a scene from the 'Keystone Cops' film. Our British police known through the world, must have been making a comedy film, 'Of how to do things the British Way'.
- A. Winsley, London, England
The police didn't think of speaking to the neighbours then, who would no doubt have told them the place was occupied by a deaf person?
- Sej, Reading, Hants
Another stunning triumph for our 'highly professional and highly trained' police force. You couldn't make it up. I'm suprised that they're even trusted to drive cars without supervision, let alone possess firearms.
- David, Cambridge, UK
