Sadness, shock and disbelief

SHOCK waves rippled through an entire community as the news of Nellie’s death spread through the neighbourhood.

“It could have been me,” said one neighbour.

The elderly woman, a close neighbour of Nellie, had walked down the alleyway only 10 minutes before her friend was found unconscious.

She said: “We used to go to the community centre lunches together — I was also on my way there. There was a place set for her and everything, when she didn’t arrive I just presumed she must have gone shopping. She was such a lovely lady. It’s so sad, it could quite easily have been me. It’s just so frightening.”

Residents on the small cul-de-sac were put in the spotlight like never before as a media scrum descended on the quiet street to report the tragic story. One woman, a pensioner who lives just doors away from Nellie’s home, said: “She is worth 20 times the people that have done this, she didn’t deserve that.

“She was so active and always going somewhere. I’ve said it before — the path is so secluded, you could fall and no-one would see you, I can’t bring myself to go down there anymore.”

A strong police presence may have been in place throughout the weekend, but residents were still shaken by the events on their own doorstep.

Robert Collins was among them. He said: “This is a lovely area but for something like this to happen has just shocked us all. We’re all elderly so we have to be so careful.”

Another neighbour said she had raised concerns about the lack of lighting near the alleyway and warned Nellie in the past.

She added: “I haven’t been able to sleep since it happened. I had said to Nellie she wanted to stop going down there. She was such a lovely person, you just couldn’t have anticipated this – I’m scared to open my door now.”