Vic book shop clerk basher ‘not rational’

The husband of a Melbourne bookstore owner found brutally bashed and lying in a pool of blood says whoever attacked his wife was not a rational human being.

Jill Brookes, 61, remains in intensive care with severe head injuries a week after being bashed in her small Altona bookshop on the afternoon of July 23.

Police say they still have no suspects or a clear motive for the bashing, which left Ms Brookes fighting for life in an induced coma The Alfred hospital.

On Friday, Ms Brookes’ shaken husband Michael Overend urged anyone with information to come forward, saying his wife was a well known and loved figure in the area who would help anyone in need.

She ran the bookshop not for profit – it was hardly a worthy robbery target – but simply as a means to share her passion for books and reading with others, he said.

“Jilly is a person who will help anyone … to have this done to her is just unbelievable,” Mr Overend told reporters.

Whoever attacked his wife must have been in a frenzied or incoherent state of mind at the time, he said, because “no one could do that do a person … and still be a rational human being”.

Detective Sergeant Brad Lawrence says while Ms Brookes’ condition has improved, police haven’t yet been able to speak her in hospital about the “vicious, cowardly attack”.

Police want to speak to anyone who saw Ms Brookes in the nearby area between 3pm and 5pm on the afternoon she was attacked, and anyone who contacted her that day.

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