A businessman was so shocked by an appalling attack and robbery at a 93-year-old woman's house in the middle of the night that he is offering a personal £3,000 reward.
Widespread revulsion was sparked after the ECHO last Friday revealed how vile thugs forced their way into the pensioner's home, and warned her "not to die" while they ransacked her property.
One of the gang, described as "scum" by Merseyside's Chief Constable Andy Cooke, violently pushed his hand over the victim's mouth, leaving her with heavy bruising.
During a whole terrifying hour, the professional robbers switched off the electricity and bolted the front door as they turned every room at the semi-detached home in Vauxhall upside down.
The thugs escaped with the 93-year-old's £2,000 pension money, and left her in darkness, having to slide slowly down her stairs on her bottom to reach a phone landline where she desperately phoned her devastated daughter.
Today, a Liverpool businessman contacted us to explain he was keen to offer a substantial reward for anyone able to provide key information to catch and successfully prosecute those responsible.
Keen to remain anonymous, he has spoken repeatedly with the police officer investigating the robbery.
He told the ECHO: "Anything involving elderly people being targeted gets under my skin.
"I care for my elderly parents, and my mum lives with me.
"I'd hope that friends of these three offenders, for £3,000, would shop them to police.
"99% of Merseyside people have high morals, but this kind of crime is the lowest of the low.
"What they did to that old lady was disgusting.
"To read in the ECHO that they told her, "this is how we make a living," made my blood boil.
"It was awful to hear."
It is hoped that, given the yobs stayed for 60 minutes inside the Herm Road house, from 2.25am, last Wednesday, forensic investigators may have obtained numerous fingerprint and DNA clues.
The gang had tape, in case they needed to bind it around the mum-of-three's mouth, and one "scumbag" held his finger to her lips, ordering her to stay silent.
They had brought tools and empty bin bags, in what appeared to be a targeted and highly-planned raid as drawers and cupboards were rifled through, and even pots and pans discarded.
The grandmother-of-seven, who has 10 great-grandchildren, has said she never wants to return to the house where she has lived for 23 years.
The terrifying experience has left her shaking, and sometimes retching, and she is currently trying to recover at her niece's home.
Every time she closes her eyes, she relieves the awful ordeal, it was added.
Born in 1926, the much-loved pensioner lived through the Blitz and is a "typical Liverpool girl" with "spirit and fight," her family said.
Anyone with information is asked to direct message @MerPolCC on Twitter, call 101 or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111, quoting reference 20000137884.
