Gunmen Friday night roughed up and robbed Douglas Manley, former Cabinet minister, and his son, Norman Manley Jr, an attorney, at their 4 Washington Drive, St Andrew residence, which their late father and grandfather, National Hero Norman Washington Manley once called home.

Yesterday, the Constabulary Communication Network confirmed that the homes had been burglarised.

The Manleys said the three armed robbers invaded their home at about 11:00 pm, tied up Douglas, 84, and his son Roy and ransacked the place. They stole about $5,000 in cash from the elder Manley’s wallet, got hold of the keys to the gate that led to Norman Manley Jr’s house and continued their pillaging there.

“The initial entry was made at my father’s house,” Norman Manley told the Sunday Observer yesterday afternoon. “Apparently they were up there for nearly an hour and even found time to have a drink,” he said.

Describing the ordeal to the newspaper, Manley said he had fallen asleep in his semi-detached den and awoke to the sound of his wife, Jenny, calling his name. He opened his eyes to find a man holding a gun to her head.

“The man then rushed me and she rushed into the house. I rushed to try and get my firearm and he got physical when I recovered the firearm. So I gave it to him and lay face down on my bed,” the attorney said. “He put the gun at my head and demanded money.”

There was no money in the house as he had recently paid some work men, he said. The gunman then took the lawyer’s palm pilot, which contains a list of his cases. “The really hurtful part is that he took my telephone/diary, which has a list of all my cases,” said Norman Manley Jr. “And he took my gun,” he added.

The gunmen then put the loot in Douglas Manley’s Toyota Corolla and drove off. The car was later recovered about two miles away on Molynes Road.

Yesterday, Douglas Manley moved to reinforce the house that had also been broken into a few years before. He might think about moving, he said, if burglars come back, but he spoke of the futility of trying to escape crime.

“I wasn’t planning to move,” he said. “But if I get robbed again I’ll have to think about it. But everywhere is being robbed. There are robberies all over Kingston. If I move I might as well move out of Jamaica; but then they’re having robberies in the US too. Robbery is robbery.”

Yesterday, his son Norman thanked local government minister Portia Simpson Miller, who had visited the home of the late founder of the People’s National Party shortly after cops were called to the house Friday night.

“I’d like to publicly express my appreciation to Portia Simpson Miller, who came with her security and was offering what support and assistance she could, for which I am eternally grateful,” he said.

Simpson Miller said she had visited the Manleys simply to show her support for a colleague and a human being.

“I visited both of them last night and this morning I spoke to Norman. Both are okay, but it was obvious that they went through an ordeal,” she told the Sunday Observer from the Mico College during yesterday’s PNP vice-presidential vote.

Dr Winston Davidson, who examined both men after the incident, said they were doing well and had not been seriously injured.

“Dr Douglas Manley is okay. He was boxed and tied up but he’s okay,” Davidson said from the Mico grounds.