The man who allegedly broke into Flora Socratous’s home on January 5 has been charged.
According to Victoria Police, a 29-year-old Prahran man was arrested this morning and charged with aggravated burglary and burglary. He faces Melbourne Magistrates’ Court today.
Flora said she’s relieved to hear the news.
“I’m relieved to hear the person who broke into my home is now in custody. I hope they do not get a slap on the wrist or are let out on bail, but unfortunately I have very little faith in our current legal system,” she told Neos Kosmos.
She also said she is traumatised from the ordeal.
“I feel violated, this home invasion has traumatised me and any noise I hear now startles me.”
“As a single woman living alone I’m terrified knowing that I’m legally not allowed to defend myself with pepper spray which would have come in very handy in this situation. I was fortunate this time to not be physically harmed but I fear for the next victim who might not be as lucky.”
Flora Socratous opens up on ‘traumatising’ home invasion
Flora opened up about what happened earlier this week, where her quick thinking to film the intruder may have helped police track him down quicker.
“I don’t even know how it occurred to me to record him, I didn’t even think about it.
“My instinct was to get him out.”
Flora says perhaps it was in the back of her head because three years ago someone tried to break into her previous home and when asked to describe them, she couldn’t remember.
She revealed that her friend has been staying with her since the incident because she doesn’t want to be alone.
She described herself as being so shaken up, she couldn’t unlock the house for the police to enter. She had to hand them the keys.
“When I was talking to my brother on the phone about the whole thing, I could hear noises in the garden, and I thought, ‘oh my god, he’s back’.”
“It’s got me on edge, but it wasn’t him, it was the neighbour across the road that decided to trespass into the property to help herself to lemons.
“I was walking down Chapel Street with my friend to grab something to eat yesterday and there was an argument next to me, I hid behind my friend. Who does that?”
Flora says she also doesn’t want to be in large crowds.
“I do not wish this upon anyone. It’s not a nice feeling to have. I mean, he invaded my space.”
“I thought you’re meant to feel safe in your own home and to have someone take that away from you. It’s a horrible feeling.
“This guy has destroyed me mentally, and I hate him for it. He’s put this fear into me, even though I did what I did, I was quick to think to record him and I’m glad I did, because if you asked me now from the shock of it all to describe him, I can’t describe him.”
Her family and friends have been very supportive, her sister Katerina and brothers Theo and Socrates.
But it was the actions of one family member, her aunty Christina Karabatos, which Flora thinks possibly “saved” her from the intruder entering her bedroom.
Flora has moved into her late parents’ home, both of whom were Cypriot immigrants.
The house is full of packing boxes and she’s fixing the place.
She says the bedroom the intruder jumped into had just a plain bed and a desk, and the bedroom she was sleeping in had a box in front of the door.
“He would have thought no one is here, it’s abandoned.”
She can’t imagine what could have happened had the intruder entered the room and saw her sleeping.
“If it wasn’t for the window rod tapping, I wouldn’t have heard him,” she says.
“I was jet lagged (she’d just returned from overseas), wasn’t sure if I was dreaming, because who would think there will be someone else in their own home?
“I thought there might be a mouse… it’s all surreal.”
Then the person hopped into the house, and she could hear footsteps in the hallway.
“I realised these are footsteps, there’s someone in the house. That’s when I got up and I grabbed my phone with me as security and I found him in the kouzina (kitchen).”
“But he was right next to my chopping knives and everything. So I crept up behind him and he turned around and saw me.
“So he copped a surprise like I did, and that’s when I lost it at him.”
The intruder did talk to her before she started recording, but she doesn’t remember what was said. She said it’s a blur.
After the person fled, Flora went back inside and noticed the intruder fed her cat.
Now reflecting on the situation, she does think it was silly of her to approach the person and get in their face with her phone.
She thinks there needs to be education on situations like this.
“What do you do in this situation? I don’t even know what the right thing to do is. Yes, they say, call the police, but that’s not the first thing that came into my head. The first thing that came to my head was to get him out.”
She can’t imagine what its like when this happens to an elderly member of our community.
