A woman endured four nights of terror as youths bombarded her home with stones and mud before police visited her.

Cancer victim Anne Rycroft, 50, of Hailsham, told police she was under attack and was helpless as she was too weak from her illness.

She said it took almost 72 hours before they visited her.

Officers arrived yesterday after a friend told them he had contacted The Argus in disgust.

Mrs Rycroft, a professional cellist until she was diagnosed with terminal cancer two years ago, fears the youths will return.

On Wednesday night the gang hurled mud at the back of her house, covering the walls and windows with clumps of earth.

Her 17-year-old son went out to reason with them but said there were too many of them.

The gang returned the following night and pelted the house with more mud and debris.

On Friday night the house was under attack for two hours while Mrs Rycroft cowered in her bedroom listening to the thuds and the cries of the boys.

They smashed the fence and entered the garden, breaking chairs and taking a wheelbarrow.

She telephoned police twice but no one came.

The next night the youths again hurled mud and sticks and broke into the garden shed, taking tools.

Mrs Rycroft, whose brother died of the same asbestos-related cancer four years ago, said: "I am terrified.

"It went on for two hours on Friday. My son saw them smash the fence. They tried to squeeze a young boy through but he got stuck so they pulled the whole thing down.

"The police said I had to have descriptions of them but it was dark."

When a policewoman visited Mrs Rycroft yesterday she said an officer would come to show her how to increase security and she should call 999 if they returned.

However, the music teacher can not afford extra security.

Jeff Grace, from Eastbourne, who went to Mrs Rycroft's home with his 19-year-old son hoping to snatch pictures of the gang on his digital camera, said: "Her garden was like a war zone. Yet the police said there was nothing they could do and to phone when the gang was back.

"I told them I was so disgusted I had telephoned The Argus. If they had taken it seriously they could have been waiting."

A police spokesman said: "This was graded for attendance though clearly not as an emergency. We attended at lunchtime on Sunday."