Passers-by stood and watched as a Didcot woman was attacked by an 18-stone, 6ft 6in tall mental patient.

Elsa Anchors, 23, was screaming as she was dragged from her car in Didcot Broadway -- but no-one dialled 999 or went to her aid.

She said: "I was shocked but not surprised at this cowardice. I hoped someone would ring the police, but nobody did. They just stood by and watched."

The incident happened in the Broadway at 7pm on October 31. Miss Anchors, who is 5ft 4in tall, and her friend, Jane McGibbon, 19, of Didcot, had stopped at the Midland Bank cashpoint when the attacker demanded her car.

Miss Anchors said: "I refused to let him have it. He dragged me from the car and pushed me to the ground.

"I grabbed my car keys and rolled myself into a ball.

"I was screaming and so was Jane -- we desperately needed some sort of help. But no-one came forward. A man in his forties standing

next to Jane just told her to ring 999. "After it was all over, someone said to me he thought it was a Hallowe'en joke." The attacker eventually ran off down the Broadway. Police said he had spent time in mental hospitals and been released into the community in Didcot.

Miss Anchors is recovering but she had to have time off from her job in Crabtree and Evelyn's at Carfax, Oxford.

Her father Tony, who is well known in Didcot for the bizarre Mini cars he turns into garden sheds and speed cameras, said: "I cannot believe that people are so cowardly. How can anyone stand by and see a young woman assaulted and dragged from her car like "Elsa is a brave girl -- braver than all those men who just stood by and did nothing."

He is complaining to social services and hospital authorities that the man was out on the street.

Didcot police eventually detained the man. He was sectioned under the Mental Health Act and is now at the Fairmile Hospital, Cholsey.

It is believed he was also involved in an incident earlier that evening when a man demanded a car from two boys, who got out and let him drive off.