A COUPLE say they are living in fear after the latest attack on their home.

Coral Mears, 31, of Littlemoor, said she was ‘petrified’ while she waited for police officers to arrive after her lounge window was smashed.

Miss Mears and her partner, who live in Beverley Road, said they felt particularly vulnerable because their family car was firebombed twice last year.

She said that she was sitting on the sofa in the downstairs living room when she heard a loud smash on Monday night.

Miss Mears said: “It must have been about 10pm and I had fallen asleep on the settee.

“I woke up and then a second later I heard a loud noise.

“Whatever it was only smashed the outside pane of the double glazing, so I didn’t even realise it was the window at first.

“My partner went to have a look outside and we found a slab of concrete that wasn’t there before, so maybe it was that.

“I called the police and it took them nearly three hours and six telephone calls to arrive – I was petrified.

“When they finally turned up, they were not even here five minutes.”

Police said they had more urgent calls to deal with and arranged for the housing authority to fix the window as soon as possible.

Miss Mears admitted that the police did contact Weymouth and Portland Housing to arrange for the window to be boarded up but said that when she contacted the housing authority herself, the police had incorrectly informed them that it was a door rather than a window. She added: “I was so scared, I was up all night.

“My partner, Shaun, suffers with schizophrenia and this is going to knock him back.”

Shaun Dunkley, 33, added: “It’s worrying that it happened and also that the police took so long.

“I am sick and tired of all this and it doesn’t do my mental health any good.”

Superintendent Rob Snowden, of Dorset Police, said the police received the call at 10.16pm and a police officer arrived at Coral’s home address at 12.43am.

He said: “She was secure in her home with her partner and the damage was to the outer pane of a double glazed window. Following police attendance, arrangements were made with Weymouth and Portland Housing for the pane to be boarded up.

“It is very important to me that people feel safe in their homes but we do need to prioritise calls we receive and, on this occasion, there were higher risk commitments that had greater priority.

“The local Safer Neighbourhood team are working with partner agencies to deal with incidents in this area in order to safeguard and reassure the community.”

Last year, the couple said they were being victimised after waking in the night to find their car had been set alight outside their home.

In August they were woken in the early hours by the sound of their car horn blaring after it was torched.

The two-year-old Vauxhall Zafira was written off following the attack.

In May that year their previous Vauxhall Zafira was written off in the same way.