Soft-spoken Rodney Malyon was found in a pool of blood by a neighbour’s gardener after he was brutally assaulted at his home at lunchtime on Tuesday.
Recovering at home from his ordeal, Malyon told Weekend Witness that he had come home for a bite to eat when three men who had jumped over his gate barged into his home demanding money and guns.
Malyon had no chance to reason with the men, who were aggressive from the outset and immediately started slapping him around and strangling him. He managed to point to his wallet, which was lying on a table opposite him. “I only had R400 in my wallet,” he said.
The robbers wanted more and one of the men started hitting him over the head with a pellet gun and another with an ornamental statue.
“They dragged me into every room, continuously slapping and strangling me and hitting me over the head,” said Malyon. Every room was splattered with blood afterwards.
The men, who he believes were high on narcotics and alcohol, then ransacked his office drawers and found the holster of his pistol. They demanded that Malyon hand over the pistol.
He told them it was in for repairs, but they wouldn’t accept his answer and searched for it until eventually they found it.
The man who found the pistol then looked at Malyon and said: “Now I am going to kill you”.
“If it hadn’t been for the safety catch, he would have shot me, because he pulled the trigger,” he said.
Upset that the pistol would not shoot, they continued to beat him and then decided to rip out the cable of his phone and strangle him with it. “They locked me up in the bathroom and … I began screaming for someone’s attention,” said Malyon.
The neighbours’ gardener heard his cries and tried to break the door down. “My cellphone started to ring, and the gardener handed it to me through the window — it was a neighbour, who sent more help.”
Malyon was treated at St Anne’s Hospital and received several stitches, sustained a fractured skull, a broken ocular bone and is bruised all over his neck and body.
He said he is grateful to be alive, but more grateful for all the support he has received. Although he lives alone, he hasn’t felt alone. “One neighbour has filled my freezer up with frozen dinners and beers and another has helped make the security a lot tighter.”
