9:00am Friday 8th September 2006
By Gareth Bethell
A WOMAN who is accused of taking two police officers hostage, says it was in a desperate bid to draw attention to the spiralling crime in her neighbourhood.
Ruby Kasawaya is said to have locked her door and kept the male PCs in her home for an hour after they went there to discuss the problems.
Now she faces being prosecuted for obstructing the police.
The 51-year-old student, of Axbridge Close, Park North, has been burgled eight times and reported six cases of criminal damage since August 1999.
She said: "All I ever get is an officer saying I've passed it on to another officer.
"I'm just fed up with the whole system. All they say is we haven't got the staff'.
"You can wait nine hours for a police officer to come out after you've been burgled, but the minute that two of their officers say they've been taken hostage there are eight of them outside your door."
Ruby, who is registered disabled and has prolapsed discs and Osteoarthritis, says she was trying to get her point across.
"I didn't attack them," she said. "I didn't take their radios off them.
"They say I'm stopping them doing their jobs but they don't do their jobs around here, that's my point."
Ruby, who has lived in her home for 19 years, says the anti-social behaviour in Axbridge Close has risen dramatically in recent years.
The windows of her home are covered in eggs that have been thrown by youths and the cars on her drive have had the windows smashed, the tyres slashed and the wing mirrors broken off.
She says her pet dog Reg has also been targeted by thugs who super-glued his ears together.
"People don't have respect for themselves so there's no way they can have respect for others," she said.
"What I want to know is why isn't more being done? The police and the council have the power but they're not using it.
"The other point is where are the parents? It's not nice to live in this sort of neighbourhood."
Swindon police confirmed that a woman had been arrested at 10.10am on Wednesday and later charged with wilfully obstructing two officers in the execution of their duty.
Ruby is due to appear at Swindon Magistrates' Court on September 14.
Ruby'swoes
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