Thugs throw rocket at disabled child then threaten mum

A distraught mum says she and her severely disabled and blind three-year-old girl could have been 'blown up' when crazed youths fired a rocket at her wheelchair.

Little Tilly-Mae Donovan was shocked and inconsolable after a gang of teenagers had fired the ‘screech rocket’, says her mother Claire.

The wheelchair was also carrying two oxygen cylinders to help her breathe.The attack happened after Claire had challenged the yobs for aiming fireworks at a passing van as she made her way home with Tilly-Mae and her second daughter Gracie-Leigh, aged seven, who had just finished school.

As the trio made their way along Conran Street in Harpurhey on Friday afternoon, four youths, aged 15 or 16, aimed one of their rockets at a passing van, whose driver remonstrated with the yobs.

Then the gang fired a second rocket at the van but it missed and landed at Gracie-Leigh’s feet.

When the mother remonstrated, the youths threatened to ‘f***ing batter’ Claire and then fired a third rocket which landed beside Tilly-Mae’s wheelchair, which was also carrying two oxygen cylinders to help her breathe.

The four youths ran off, leaving Tilly-Mae sobbing in her wheelchair.

The girl was born with Down’s Syndrome as well as two holes in her heart. At the age of one, she had a heart attack and was left brain-damaged and blind.

Claire, 24, said her older daughter had been ‘heart-broken’ while the firework could have hit the oxygen tanks and ‘blown us all up’.

She said:

A spokeswoman for Greater Manchester Police confirmed they were investigating the incident after Claire made a 999 call from the scene.The single mum continued:

Anyone with information about the youths who fired the rockets can call GMP on 101 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555111.