Glasgow Herald, 03/05/01 Outrage at blind woman's eviction ======================= BRIAN DONNELLY and ROBBIE DINWOODIE SHERIFF officers yesterday attempted to haul a young blind woman from her home at seven in the morning wrapped only in the duvet in which she had been sleeping. Vicky Haylott, 20, was shocked and terrified when sheriff officers broke down her door and tried to remove her from her bed, just 24 hours before she was due to leave the council house to move into a new home. Sheriff officers were granted a court order to evict in a private action brought by her ex-partner, who had the tenancy of the house but who had moved out a year ago. Neighbours at Whitehill Grove, Dalkeith, Midlothian, who had supported her on two previous attempts to evict her while she was waiting to be allocated a new house, quickly gathered when they heard the noise and saw around 20 police officers outside. Previous attempts failed because her neighbours put up such resistance to the eviction, which was described as "callous and cold-hearted" by Tommy Sheridan, the Scottish Socialist Party MSP, last night. Ms Haylott said: "They battered down the door and wouldn't even let me get dressed or anything. It was the most terrifying thing that has ever happened to me. I was screaming for my dad and they wouldn't let him in. I said I wouldn't talk to them until my dad was let in. "They were hauling and pulling at me, but the police said there was nothing they could do." The crowd of around 30 became enraged when they heard Ms Haylott scream from inside the house, but one neighbour said they were prevented from helping by police. Her family, alerted by neighbours, rushed to the scene from nearby Gorebridge, and her father Derek, 46, struggled through the police cordon in an effort to reach her. Vicky's brother, Greg, 22, managed to get inside the house through a window as her father was pushed back. Her boyfriend, Robbie Murray, 20, of Corstorphine, Edinburgh, who had stayed overnight after the couple had been looking for carpets for the new home, was also physically removed from the house. The case has caused a row in the Scottish Parliament, with Rhona Brankin, the local MSP, reporting Mr Sheridan to the standards committee for intervening where it was not his constituency. Ms Haylott contacted Mr Sheridan after she felt not enough had been done when she initially contacted Ms Brankin. Ms Haylott's mother, Elaine, 43, said she believed the sheriff officers had breached her daughter's human rights because the eviction notice should have been in Braille. She said: "It is despicable. We were just lucky the council were able to let her into her new home a day early after we told them what happened." Margot Russell, the local councillor, said: "I am disappointed that the eviction went ahead despite Midlothian Council informing the tenant's solicitor that Vicky had accepted the keys to her own house." One neighbour who witnessed the incident, Margaret Hamilton, 50, said: "It is sick. She was holding on to the window ledge and screaming and they were grappling with her. There was nothing we could do." Mr Sheridan said he would defend his right to have intervened when he is called before with the standards committee. He added: "This woman came to me in trouble and I felt I had to try and help. It is disgrace that this can happen in this day and age. I am also annoyed that Labour seem more interested in parliamentary protocol than in protecting their constituents." Ms Brankin, Midlothian MSP, said: "I am absolutely dismayed that the sheriff officers evicted Vicky from the house. I and others have interceded on behalf of her on many occasions and were hopeful that she would be given time to get her new house ready." The sheriff officers, HM Love & Co, Edinburgh, and Brian Sutherland, Ms Haylott's ex-partner, were unavailable for comment last night.
