Thieves snatch speedboat crash woman's prosthetic legs

A woman who lost a leg in a speedboat accident that killed her husband and daughter has had her prosthetic limbs stolen.

Thieves on mopeds smashed into Victoria Milligan's car in west London and stole three artificial legs, worth £30,000, while she was having dinner in a nearby restaurant.

The personal trainer, 45, lost a leg in a speedboat accident in 2013 which killed her TV executive husband Nick, 51, and eight-year-old daughter Emily.

Her artificial limbs were inside a bag on the back seat of her car on Michael Road, Fulham, when they were stolen, together with a laptop, on Sunday afternoon.

The prosthetics were custom made and would be useless to anyone else.

Mrs Milligan said the thieves probably took the legs without realising what they were and may have dumped them somewhere.

She told the Daily Mail: "It's just so upsetting because they are so valuable to me, and so bespoke that you can't just go out and buy some more. My leg needs to be recast and the legs remade which will take about three months.

"It was quite a big, heavy bag so they probably thought they were going to get something quite valuable, but what they probably didn't account for was three legs."

Police are appealing for anyone who saw what happened to come forward.

Inspector Darren Desa, of Hammersmith and Fulham Borough, described the theft as "heinous" and appealed for the thieves to return Mrs Milligan's legs.

"I would also appeal to anyone who knows where the prosthetic legs are to do the right thing and hand them in to police or inform police where they are. They are of no use to anyone but the victim," he added.

Mr Milligan, who was managing director of Sky's advertising sales division Sky Media, died with his daughter in Cornwall's Camel Estuary on May 5 2013.

The family of six were thrown into the water by the sharply turning speedboat which then circled dozens of times at high speed and hit them. The surviving children were also injured.