A distressed son has described the moment his 83-year-old father defended his western Sydney home from a machete-wielding masked intruder.
Patrick Bogues woke to the sound of shuffling in his Merrylands home in the early hours of Thursday morning after the attacked broke in through a window.
After calling out for his wife, who was convalescing in a separate bedroom, Patrick attempted to apprehend the man as he fled through the same window he had earlier smashed.
A brief tussle ensued before Patrick came away with the man’s Nike sneaker which has since been given to police for forensic testing.
Though Patrick had no way of knowing at the time, his was the fourth of at least five homes broken into across the tight-knit suburb by the intruder between 4am and 6.20am on Thursday.
Police allege the man attempted to sexually assault an elderly woman with a knife before ‘sexually touching’ another in a separate home invasion.
One of the two elderly women told Daily Mail Australia she had since replaced the locks on her doors and felt ‘sorry’ that residents had been made to feel unsafe in her home.
She said she had not been touched by the intruder but said he had taken off with several credit cards.
Patricia and Patrick Bogues enjoy a drink. Patrick has been hailed a hero for fending off an intruder with a Nike shoe
Patrick Bogues was out and about collecting a new window from a nearby store the day after he defending his house from an intruder
An elderly man who lives on the same block said his home was also targeted by the intruder.
It was early on the morning of his 96th birthday when he woke to a ‘strange banging sound’.
After laying awake for some time, he let his dog out to his front yard before returning to sleep.
Some time later, the police arrived and pointed out his fly screen had been slashed and a separate door screen had been removed.
The man said he did not believe the man broke into his home, but was still shaken up by the events.
‘I just hope they catch the grimy bugger, it’s just bloody terrible,’ he said.
‘It’s a good area. A thing like this just shouldn’t happen.’
Patrick’s son, Eamon, was clearing glass from the floor of his parents home when he said he was ‘grateful’ his mother, who had not awoken during the invasion, avoided being assaulted by the intruder.
One of the houses a sex-crazed intruder entered but was scared off
‘Mum’s been crook so she’s been sleeping on her own,’ he said while holding back tears.
‘I just think of the two women who were sexually assaulted.
‘I keep thinking, if he’d gotten into where mum was sleeping, he could’ve gotten at mum.’
Aemon said his parents had discovered chocolate wrappers in a sitting room only feet from where Patricia had been sleeping and that he had ‘roughed up’ the linen closet and pantry.
‘Yeah, we figure he could’ve been in here for some time before dad caught on to him,’ he said.
‘I just keep thinking how much worse it could have gone’.
While Patricia was unscathed, Patrick has since undergone treatment to remove shattered glass from his feet after pursuing the intruder over the smashed window.
Aemon said his father, an Irish-Australian, had been planning to dance at a St Patrick’s Day parade but was no longer able due to his injuries.
Detectives were seen conducting investigations the following day
Patrick was pictured collecting a new window from a nearby store on Friday.
A nearby resident, Mahmoud, whose surveillance cameras were unable to film the intruder, said Patrick was known to love dancing.
‘They’re lovely people,’ he said.
Police were seen methodically combing streets in the area on Friday as the alleged home invader remains at large.
A spokesperson for NSW Police said the man had yet to be identified though a ‘number of items have been seized for forensic examination’.
