Mother, 44, speaks out after single-punch attack in front of two daughters at Northampton park

A mother has spoken out after being attacked at a Northampton park, when she was punched in the face and fell to the ground in front of her two daughters.

Jessica Lopes had just said goodbye to a friend and her children when she was attacked by a complete stranger on August 16 in Abington Park.

As the male offender sped past Jessica and her two daughters, aged four and eight, on his bike, the 44-year-old was punched in the face and knocked to the ground.

The incident took place at around 2pm and happened just behind the ice cream vans on the footpath near the pelican crossing in Park Avenue South, towards St Peter & St Paul’s Church.

Jessica told Chronicle & Echo: “My two girls witnessed the whole thing and have been left traumatised after seeing their mum attacked.”

When asked to describe how she felt just after the incident, Jessica said: “Shock, disbelief, why me? My initial thoughts were, what? What just happened? Why did they do that?”

The mother-of-four, who was with her two youngest daughters at the time of the incident, says what has “upset her more than anything” was seeing her daughters “hysterical”.

“It upsets me thinking about their poor little faces,” she added.

Jessica recalled how her daughters were “distraught”, with her four-year-old asking her if she was going to die after she landed on the floor.

At the time when she was punched, Jessica was holding a picnic bag in one hand and her four-year-old daughter’s hand in the other.

She was punched with such force that it knocked her to the ground, her glasses came off, the bags went flying, and she landed badly on her wrist.

Jessica went to hospital for X-rays on her face and wrist, but thankfully nothing was broken, just “swollen and painful”.

It has now been a week since the incident and Jessica’s face remains swollen. Despite nothing being broken from what the doctors could see beneath the swelling, she is now experiencing pain in her jaw and ear ache.

Jessica shared just how much of an impact this attack has had, particularly on her daughters.

During a recent visit to the town centre following the incident, a man passed Jessica and her daughters on his bike.

After he had passed them, the four-year-old sighed in relief and said she was glad he did not punch her mother.

Jessica’s eight-year-old daughter did not sleep for the first two-to-three nights following the attack, and is now “very anxious” and does not want to go anywhere.

The 44-year-old says she spent the first few days after the attack crying, wondering why this happened to her.

With no CCTV cameras in the area where the incident took place and no witnesses who have yet come forward to Northamptonshire Police, Jessica worries the offender will not be caught.

She wants to make an appeal to anyone who may have dashcam footage, photos or videos that have captured the offender at around the time it happened.

When Northamptonshire Police were approached for comment, they confirmed the incident happened in the described location at around 2pm – when a woman was struck in the face by an unknown man on a bicycle.

A spokeswoman for the force said: “He is described as a mixed race man, early to mid twenties with very short hair, wearing a grey jumper, black bottoms and dark coloured footwear. He was riding a black mountain bike with a white stripe on it.

“Witnesses or anyone who might know who this man is should call us, quoting incident number 23000510457.”

Jessica says that with how fast the offender was travelling, it appeared he “knew exactly where he was going”.

Described by Jessica as “comfortable and confident in that area”, with the speed he appeared and disappeared again, the victim wonders if he may be from or nearby the area.

The victim says the offender “could do it again” and for people to be on guard in that area, as she would “hate for anyone else to get hurt”.