Terrified mum reveals moment she caught man trying to snatch daughter, 6, from her bed in middle of the night

The mum said: “It could have been a very different kind of Mother’s Day.”

The woman revealed how he was “hovering over my daughter, his hands down beside her”, and added: “I went to scream for my partner as I saw him moving but I couldn’t get it out, couldn’t scream.”

Specialist cops are set to interview the little girl after the terrifying incident in the early hours of Saturday.

It’s thought the man, aged around 28, entered the house in Drumbeg estate in Craigavon by a bedroom window.

The 32-year-old mum said she was in her own room with her two daughters, aged four and six, in the same bed.

At around 2.30am, as her partner was asleep on the sofa downstairs, she woke from her slumber.

She said her six-year-old, who was at the bottom of the bed, was moving her feet and the woman opened her eyes.

She explained: “I was lying on my back with my head tilted down towards the floor, not fully awake. I was just looking at these black socks and blue jeans, this man’s feet at the side of the bed. He had no shoes on.

I thought to myself as I was wakening up, blue jeans? My partner doesn’t wear jeans....

“I thought to myself as I was wakening up, blue jeans? My partner doesn’t wear jeans. I knew at that moment there was somebody in my bedroom.”

She said she knew she was going to have to open her eyes wide although fear had gripped her.

“I was still lying there. I said ‘who are you?’ and he moved very slightly, then froze. He didn’t look startled, he looked as if he was thinking I was dreaming.

“I couldn’t see him clearly but he didn’t turn to me or look into my face, just slightly moved his hands. He tried to stay as still as possible.”

She told us the man – his head shaved, a “dirty cream shirt” – began moving towards the top of the bed.

She said: “He backed off from the child and kind of walked sideways, towards me. I could only see the side of him. He didn’t look up at me.

“I went to scream for my partner as I saw him moving but I couldn’t get it out, couldn’t scream.

“He moved up and towards the door. When he opened the door the light hit him and that’s when I saw him more clearly but I didn’t see his face, just the
side profile.

“He moved faster at the door.”

I went to scream for my partner as I saw him moving but I couldn’t get it out, couldn’t scream

The woman leapt from her bed as the man dashed from her bedroom. She said he “jumped the stairs” as she came behind him.

“I had only got my foot on the second stair and he was in a panic behind the curtain at my front door. He couldn’t get it open, he was pushing and grabbing.