Tommy Ward murder: "Two years on and the lowlifes are still out there"

DEVOTED relatives of murdered pensioner Tommy Ward have appealed to the public to help end their torture and turn his killers in to police two years on from the horrific attack.
Tommy WardTommy Ward
Tommy Ward

This Sunday marks the two-year anniversary of the night Tommy (80) was beaten in his Maltby home on Salisbury Road — and his family believe the answer to his unsolved murder lies within the town.

Tommy, who used a frame to walk, suffered extensive injuries during the robbery in which his £30,000 life-savings were stolen.

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The former miner died in hospital five months later on February 23.

Five people have been arrested but have been released without charge.

Daughter-in-law Sarah Ward (43) said the family was “struggling” after enduring another year of life without their beloved dad and granddad.

Mum-of-two Sarah said: “Every time there’s an anniversary or a birthday and he’s not here it’s harder — my son has just got his GCSE results and if he had been here I know he would have been so proud of him.

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“The boys miss him terribly, they are going through it as much as us.”

Sarah, who is married to Sean (46) the youngest of Tommy’s five children, added: “We are appealing for information, anything at all as we are going through every emotion — upset, anger, frustration — and knowing these lowlifes are still out there is really hard.

“We are no further on, as far as we are concerned, than a year ago which is frustrating.

“The public have been ringing in and we know lots of things have come in but they’ve just not led anywhere — but somebody does know who did it.”

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She appealed directly to anyone who knows who the killers are to speak up, adding: “If they were in this situation two years down the line and it was a member of their family how would they feel?

“There’s no closure, we can’t really move on, it’s still so raw, we just want justice for Tommy and closure for ourselves.

“We go from day-to-day but it’s a struggle.”

Sarah said the family still believed there was a local link behind his murder.

“It was almost as if they knew what they were looking for and had knowledge of his pattern of living,” she said.

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This Sunday was “not a day to remember”, she said, “because there are no nice thoughts from that day”.

“We will just be trying to keep ourselves busy because that’s our way of dealing with it.”

But she was hopeful that a new detective leading the investigation would bring “fresh eyes” to the case.

Det Chief Insp Martin Tate said: “We are determined to find those responsible for such a cowardly, selfish and vicious assault on a defenceless 80-year-old man.” 

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“Anyone who believes they may have information, no matter how insignificant they feel it may be, contact the police on 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111, quoting incident number 408 of October 1 2015.”

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