Michael Winner’s widow has been reunited with personal possessions worth about £280,000 that were violently stolen by her late husband’s former partner.
Gurgana Gueorguieva, 48, subjected Geraldine Winner, 81, to a three-hour ordeal at her Knightsbridge home in October 2015 after forcing herself into the flat shortly after 10pm.
Gueorguieva hit and restrained Mrs Winner with plastic cable ties before stealing jewellery, cash and art, leaving her with three deep cuts to the head as well as a broken rib and finger.
She is currently serving a nine-and-a-half-year prison sentence.
Police have returned the items, which included the Victorian diamond engagement ring given to Mrs Winner by her film-maker husband, who died in 2013, almost four years to the day after the incident.
She told Hello! magazine: “In fact I doubted I would see any of it again. It was the loss of items of sentimental value which hurt the most.
“How on earth she thought she would get away with what she did, I’ll never know.
“I was terrified that someone would come into my apartment and attack me again.
“I was too scared to be alone at night so a friend stayed in my spare room.”
Mrs Winner undertook therapy in the wake of the attack.
She said: “I’ve got that original British backbone. I won’t be beaten.”
The full interview is available in Hello magazine, out now.
