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from Cathy (cathyvpreece@aol.com)

The Evening Standard

AOL woman punched in the face

by Justin Davenport Crime Correspondent

The actress who plays the AOL computer girl in the TV advertisements has been attacked and mugged while on her way home in south London.

Model Rachel Willis, 26, the daughter of Liberal Democrat MP Phil Willis, was punched in the face in a frightening assault by a youth who ran off with her mobile phone.

The actress, who plays the AOL character Connie in the TV ads, managed to hold on to her handbag before the thief ran off into a nearby estate.

She was walking home to the flat she shares with her father in Kennington at the time.

Mr Willis, the Lib-Dems education spokesman, immediately returned home to be with his daughter, who was said to be very shaken but not seriously hurt.

He said: "You hear daily of assaults and muggings but never think it will happen to someone in your own family.

"Rachel was clearly upset by the incident but recognises that she could have been seriously injured in the attack."

The actress immediately called the police who were on the scene within minutes.

Mr Willis said officers recognised "a local gang leader" who was in the area at the time of the attack.

Scotland Yard confirmed that the model was attacked in Tyers Street at around 6.30pm last night.

Kennington is within the borough of Lambeth, one of Scotland Yard's priority street crime areas. Recent figures showed street crime had risen in every London borough, with increases of more than 70 per cent in parts of the capital.

Headline figures published last month showed that mugging increased by 38 per cent across the whole of London, fuelling an increase of six per cent in overall crime.

On street crime, every borough saw mugging go up, with rises ranging from 19 per cent in Enfield to more than 70 per cent in three outlying boroughs - Richmond, Waltham Forest and Greenwich.

Lambeth is renowned as the mugging capital of Britain with an increase of more than 38 per cent for the second successive year.

© Associated Newspapers Ltd., 08 May 2002

(posted 7995 days ago)

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