Robber jailed for knife attack on lottery family

A WOMAN who broke into the home of the mother of teenage lottery winner Jane Park and threaten to slash her face has been jailed.

Teenage lottery winner Jane Park. Picture: Jane Barlow

Natasha Stirling was on legal highs when she forced her way into Linda Restorick’s house before spraying the woman in the face with perfume and holding a knife to her neck during the alarming incident.

Ms Restorick was forced to barricade herself in the bathroom of her Capital home before Stirling made off with a handbag contain £630.

During the terrifying robbery – which took place the night before Lotto winner Jane appeared in the BBC documentary Teenage Millionaire: The Year I Won the Lottery – Ms Restorick was also made to hand over her PIN.

Following the attack, Jane, 19, posted about the attack on Facebook, saying: “I got to my house in ten minutes to find the windows smashed and my mum in bits.”

She also said her mother had been left “petrified” by the violent robbery.

Stirling, 32, appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court yesterday where she was sentenced to 12 months in prison for the unprovoked attack. Previously, the court had been told Ms Restorick had been asleep in bed when she was woken by Stirling, who is known to her, shouting for help outside her home.

Stirling then smashed a window and entered Ms Restorick’s home, in the Prestonfield area, as the homeowner frantically locked herself in the toilet. The thug then managed to reach Ms Restorick before spraying her in the face with an “unknown perfume substance” and holding the three-inch blade to her face.

After fleeing the house, Stirling, from Edinburgh, was picked up by police who had been called to a The Ball Room pub in the Jock’s Lodge area where Stirling was trying to sell on stolen laptops from a rucksack.

Stirling admitted to forcing entry to the home, smashing a window, spraying a substance in Ms Restorick’s face, holding a knife to her throat, demanding she hand over her PIN and rob her of a handbag and wallet and their contents on December 17 last year.

Solicitor Mark Hutchison said his client had had a “very difficult childhood” and had chosen a “poor choice of partners” over the years.

Sheriff Frank Crowe jailed Stirling for 12 months, and placed her on a six-month supervision order.