A couple who were attacked in their own home by a 6ft 4 naked intruder say they are still traumatised by the ordeal two years on.
Marjorie Bosworth said "you cannot imagine the terror we felt" after Scott Presswood, a stranger to the couple, smashed their window with a cast iron barbeque and threatened to rape and kill her husband Ted.
Since the attack, Marjorie has undergone three different sets of counselling after she was left "crying and screaming" every night. The 78-year-old says she and her husband "still feel like prisoners in our own home," which was once their "safe haven".
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Derby Crown Court heard how the dad-of-two knocked on the Bosworths' door in April 2020, while they were watching a film in their rural home. Presswood smashed his way through the couple's window with a cast iron barbeque, and then used it to batter Ted while telling him "I am Scott and I am naked".
Marjorie said: "My husband was in the lounge being beaten by a 6ft4ins naked guy fighting for his life. I was in a bedroom opposite the lounge screaming at the top of my head.
"I could hardly breathe for the feeling of fear he was going to kill us, but I managed to grab the phone and phone the police. I will never know to this day how they could understand what I was saying with all the screaming and the shouting and banging from the lounge.
"They told me to lock myself in the bedroom and take deep breaths, saying 'don't put the phone down, we are on our way, you are not alone'. I was praying to God not to let us die at the hands of this lunatic.
"The noise was horrific coming from the lounge, I tried to think what I could do to help Ted. All I could think of is that we were going to die."
She has now written a book to chronicle her experience and help her work through the trauma that the intrusion left her with.
Marjorie said: "I have been wanting to write about what happened to us and halfway through writing the book I wanted to give up. But I guess it's been good letting go of all the feelings that we went through. After he was arrested, we found a bed in our barn where he had clearly been sleeping. It was a terrifying thought that he had been watching us."
Marjorie and her husband Ted were married in July 2000 and spent some years living in the US. They then retired to rural Derbyshire in 2008.
Marjorie says: "We leased a place in the countryside, we had alpacas and ducks and chickens. Ted dug a pond. It was beautiful, but very isolated."
In April 2020, Marjorie spotted Scott Presswood, a complete stranger, walking his two dogs just inside her boundary fence, but thought nothing of it. But later in the evening, as they watched TV, they heard tapping outside. Presswood then knocked on their door, completely naked.
Marjorie says: "Ted and I just stared at him. He told Ted to get out, he was clearly very angry and unhinged, but Ted said: 'just leave us alone and we won't call the police.'
"Ted is a very peaceful person, he didn't want any trouble, and he managed to shut the door."
But Presswood kicked the door in and then threw a garden barbeque through the couple's patio doors.
Marjorie says: "It was like a horror film. There was glass everywhere and a naked man coming for Ted, carrying our barbeque. He was a huge bloke and much younger than us and there was no way we could stand up to him.
"I thought he was going to kill us. I called the police, and I was screaming for help, but I knew that we were in the countryside and a long way from the nearest station.
"Ted grabbed a knife but Presswood told him to get on the floor and take off his clothes.
"Presswood was battering Ted with the barbeque, Ted was pouring with blood. I thought he was going to die. I was screaming hysterically."
For some unexplained reason Presswood suddenly ran out of the property, leaving the couple bleeding and terrified.
Marjorie says: "The police came and brought a mediator, they found Presswood on the patio, and he was arrested and taken away.
"Ted was bleeding heavily, he has broken ribs and a broken cheekbone. I was so frightened. We couldn't go back in the house because it was a crime scene.
"It was just awful. Ted was in hospital for a few days but afterwards we just didn't feel safe in our own home. We now have nine security cameras and panic alarms either end.
"Even now, we don't sleep well. I have to have the lights on. For months, Ted would wake me up and I was screaming and crying in my sleep. I've had lots of counselling and I've even written a book because I thought that it might help with my recovery."
Presswood, of Chesterfield Road, Barlborough, appeared at Derby Crown Court last July. Joseph Harvey, defending, told the court Presswood had taken a cocktail of hallucinogenic drugs following a mental breakdown.
The father-of-two had previously lost access to his children and suffered the sudden death of his father. Presswood admitted a section 20 wounding and criminal damage.
Jailing him for 28 months Judge Shaun Smith QC said: "You destroyed the lives of Mr and Mrs Bosworth - who were in their retirement somewhere they had always wanted to be."
Marjorie's book, 'Uninvited...A True Story' is now available on Amazon.
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