Detectives are appealing this-evening for witnesses to a serious incident when a woman was found beaten and stabbed in a doorway in Petticoat Lane market in London’s East End.
Horrified market traders found the 36-year-old woman in a pool of blood on Sunday morning with her face badly disfigured in the doorway leading up to flats above the Fressco Lebanese restaurant in Middlesex Street, Aldgate.
“We were all in shock,” said one of the traders who found her, who asked not to be identified. “She was naked and covered in blood. It was horrific.”
Police arrived soon after 10am. The woman, thought to be from Thailand, was treated at the scene by ambulance paramedics before being taken to the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, where she had facial surgery and is still detained in a serious, but stable condition.
Tilda Koprcosor, 27, a waitress at the Fressco restaurant, said: “I heard the woman call for help three times. The stallholders ran to help her and called for an ambulance.”
Police are appealing for anyone who was in Middlesex Street, near Wentworth Street, between 1am and 8.45am, who may have seen or heard anything suspicious to call the Community Safety Unit at Limehouse on 020-7275 4758, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800-555111.
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Andrew Newland, 38, from Lewisham in south London, appeared in custody at East London Magistrates’ Court today, charged with attempted murder.
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