A DREAM wedding on a Barbados beach was nearly called off after the bride was mugged in a horrific knife attack on the paradise island.

Marion Harrison and her fiance John Beames had been on holiday for just two days when they were attacked on the track leading from the main road to their hotel.

The couple were heading home for the evening when Marion felt someone touch her shoulder and heard the sound of a knife slicing through the strap of her handbag.

The thief got away with her bag, camera, personal belongings and a large amount of cash.

Marion, of School Lane, Guide, said: "I was terrified. All I heard was the swishing noise of the knife cutting through the leather and then saw this man running away. I just stood there screaming while John chased him, but he got away.

"After that happened I just wanted to get on the first plane home. All I could think of was that our room keywas in the bag and the thief might come back. I wanted to cancel the wedding and come home, but John and the hotel staff talked me round."

Marion and John had been to visit their friends who were staying on the other side of the island, but say that although they were warned by their Unijet rep to take taxis, they were not told about the dangers of the track leading to their luxury hotel.

She said: " We just weren't warned about the crime on the island. On our first night we were offered drugs on the street, and then this happened. Apparently a Dutch couple were mugged in the same spot the week before us but nobody told us about it." But after the initial trauma of the mugging, Marion, John, their witnesses Peter Jackson and Patricia Heaton, and staff at the Casuarina Beach Hotel rallied round to make their dream of a paradise wedding come true.

Social worker Marion said: "The wedding was absolutely fantastic - it was like a dream come true. The staff at the hotel did everything in their power to make sure our day was perfect.

"But I will never forget the mugging and I would warn other people that If they want to go to Barbados they should stay in their hotels.

"My bag, camera and money were all insured, but I lost personal things like pictures of my children, and the fear of the attack will stay with me forever."

A spokeswoman for Unijet said: "Crime exists wherever we go in the world and we have to take sensible precautions.

"When people go on holiday sometimes they think they are immune to things like this.

"But criminals exist in all these poor countries, and while we are very sympathetic to what happened to this couple, I don't think Unijet can be held responsible.

"People have to be vigilant whenever they go to a strange place, whether at home or abroad."

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