Last month, a 67-year-old man had his wallet stolen as he returned to his Milnbank Road home, and before that an 83-year-old woman was robbed and threatened with a hypodermic syringe in an incident in Banchory Road.

In December, an 81-year-old Tele reader vowed she would never leave her home alone again after she was brutally mugged while out to buy her copy of the paper in the Stobswell area. The woman was hospitalised with a broken hip and other injuries.

And in November, an elderly man was the victim on an unprovoked assault at his own front door in West School Road.

Despite the pattern of brutality against the elderly, Tayside Police recently went on record claiming Dundee’s streets are safe and that incidents such as these are “rare” and “exceptional”.