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Blunder in police hunt; CRIME: Apology after raid leaves mum terrified.


Byline: By Mark Cowan CRIME CORRESPONDENT

POLICE hunting a sex attacker have been forced to apologise after they raided the wrong block of flats and left a young mum petrified pet·ri·fy  
v. pet·ri·fied, pet·ri·fy·ing, pet·ri·fies

v.tr.
1. To convert (wood or other organic matter) into a stony replica by petrifaction.

2.
 in her own home.

Stephanie Carey said she and her daughter were "terrified ter·ri·fy  
tr.v. ter·ri·fied, ter·ri·fy·ing, ter·ri·fies
1. To fill with terror; make deeply afraid. See Synonyms at frighten.

2. To menace or threaten; intimidate.
" after being woken in the early hours by the sound of crashing as officers battered down the front door of her Tile Cross Tile Cross is an area in the east of the city of Birmingham, England. It is a small area with a shopping centre on the borders of the Meadway, Marston Green and The Radleys.  flat.

But when a neighbour intervened, officers realised they had not only got the wrong flat, they had also gone to the wrong block.

Miss Carey, who shares the flat with her seven-year-old daughter Shauna, said it was the second time police had called at her flat in Mackadown Lane by mistake.

Now she is waiting for the damaged door to be fully repaired following the incident at 2.30am on October 13.

"I can't understand how they could make such a mistake, the numbers of the blocks are lit up and can be clearly seen," said the 26-year-old, who suffers from epilepsy epilepsy, a chronic disorder of cerebral function characterized by periodic convulsive seizures. There are many conditions that have epileptic seizures. Sudden discharge of excess electrical activity, which can be either generalized (involving many areas of cells in .

"They scared the life out of me and my daughter. She hasn't been able to sleep properly since. They were banging on the door and I didn't even get a chance to open it.

"I was panicking because I live on my own with my daughter.Aneighbour came to the door and thought I'd had a fit. That's when they realised they had got the wrong block.

"They really need to stop and think what they are doing."

Miss Carey said a police officer apologised over the phone when she went to Stechford station.

The force is now writing to Miss Carey to apologise.

A police spokesman said: "Officers made an emergency entrance to a flat in an area where there are a number of blocks of flats to arrest an offender who had allegedly committed a serious sex offence a short time earlier.

"The officers, acting in good faith on information received from a crime victim, quite simply went to what turned out be the wrongly identified block of flats.

"A senior officer has apologised for any distress and advised that this has been recorded as a quality of service complaint against West Midlands Police West Midlands Police is the Home Office police force responsible for policing the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England.

It is the second largest in the United Kingdom after London's Metropolitan Police [1]. It covers an area with nearly 2.
."

CAPTION(S):

PETRIFIED Stephanie Carey and daughter Shauna.
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Publication:Birmingham Mail (England)
Date:Oct 23, 2008
Words:373
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