‘He was standing over me’: Backpacker attacked by rum bottle wielding intruder as she enters home

A BAYVIEW woman says she thought she had been whacked in the head with a brick when a masked intruder attacked her at her home overnight

Diana Amendoeira Alves was attacked by an intruder in her own home. She was struck on the forehead with a glass bottle as the intruder fled through the front door. Photograph: Che Chorley

• Woman attacked, struck over head with bottle by intruder as she returned to her Bayview home
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DIANA Amendoeira Alves thought she had been whacked in the head with a brick when she came face-to-face with an intruder in her home in the early hours of this morning.

Last night around 12.30am the intruder, carrying a large bottle of rum, was attempting to exit out the front door of her Bayview home as she tried to get in.

She now has a 2cm cut to her forehead.

The 28-year-old backpacker only moved to Darwin three weeks ago and has briefly questioned her decision after her van was also broken into last week.

Ms Alves said she initially thought it was her housemate and called out to him, only to realise when the door opened that it was a stranger.

“I saw a shadow of a man on the other side (of the door), and so I actually thought it was my landlord, and I was trying to open (the door) and he was just not moving, or anything so I said ‘Daryl just stop fooling around just open the door’,” she said.

“And so finally that’s when the doors opened and as this guy, just like full mask on, and so that’s when like he pulls me back and he smashed me with the bottle and again and then I fall on the ground. And so then he kind of like looked at me so I just put like my hands like that (over her face) and then he ran away.”

Police believe the intruder climbed through a balcony and into the home.

Ms Alves said they would now be locking up their balcony door

She said the whole incident took just three seconds.

“I was never assaulted before in my life so it was really … I think it was just the impact of like when he was hitting me was just so strong, in a way it was really bizarre … what scared me – it was when I actually was on the floor, and he was standing over me,” she said.

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She said she wouldn’t be telling her family back in Portugal, so as not to frighten them.

Ms Alves thanked the police and paramedics who came to her aid.

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