An elderly lady who slipped into a coma after being mugged last February has returned to the Island after being in hospital overseas.

However, Mrs. Josie Ray, who was making progress in the Alexandria, Virginia hospital, has regressed again, said her daughter Carol Culver. “She's back in Bermuda but she's not doing that great,” Ms Culver said. While overseas her mother had been sitting up and responding to people, nodding her head yes and no and recognising people. However, then she contracted an illness and regressed. Her family decided to bring her home to Bermuda after doctors overseas said there was nothing more they could do for her. “She does open her eyes still, but she's not responding,” said Ms Culver. “It's like losing her twice.

“The neurologists overseas seemed to think she would come back again, but she hasn't ... I don't know what the prognosis is now.”

Mrs. Ray, 77, was mugged outside the Southampton Post Office in February of this year, and has been slipping in and out of a coma ever since.

Her mugger, 16-year old Tyone Brangman, was released on a three-year probation in August - a ruling which Justice Charles-Etta Simmons said she made after taking into account a statement from Mrs. Ray's husband, William Cheese Ray. In the statement Mr. Ray said he felt compassion for the teenager.