A mother felt “violated” after someone defecated outside her flat – before cleaning themselves up with a dishrag and leaving it on her front doorstep.

Elizabeth Burgess, of Whitmore House, East Crescent, New Southgate, felt sick when she opened her front door to find fresh human faeces on the hand carved decorative table she keeps outside.

To make matters worse, the mystery culprit attempted to clean him or herself up using a towel and dumped it on her ‘welcome’ mat.

The 61-year-old had spent the day in bed with back pain and when her neighbours alerted her to the mess, she said she felt “frantic”.

She said: “I thought, oh what a dirty devil. It was stinking to high heaven. The smell hit me, it was so pungent and rancid. It made me want to vomit.

“It was the most revolting thing I have ever seen. It totally knocked me and my neighbours for six.

“Whoever did it needs a slap. How dare they come and sit on my table to do their business? I’ve never seen anything like that on my front door before.”

Former dinnerlady Ms Burgess rang the police, who assured her it was not a targeted attack and it was probably done by someone with mental health problems.

But she admitted the incident has left her “petrified” to leave her house.

She added: “The way I feel now is sheer disgust. I feel violated. They invaded my personal space. People keep reassuring me not to take it personally, but I have.

“I’ve cried my eyes out all week. I feel someone did this on purpose, that they are trying to tell me something.

“I’ve got no answers, I don’t know who did this to me.”

In a further blow, when attempting to contact Barnet Borough Council’s health and safety team she was told nobody was available to clear the mess up.

As a result, she was forced to disinfect her table and toss the excrement into the rubbish bin herself.

She added: “Where are all these health and safety regulations they keep banging on about? They said I’d have had to wait until Monday.

“By that point, it would have been rock solid. Children play here and that’s not good enough.

“I’ve not even had a measly thank you from them for clearing it up myself. It’s a disgrace.”

The three-storey block is owned by Barnet Homes and Mrs Burgess alerted the housing group to the issue on Tuesday.

A Barnet Council spokesman said: “We very much sympathise with Mrs Burgess. No one should have to suffer such a disgusting act but the council does not offer a service of cleaning up excrement if it is not in a public space.

“In this instance, as this is a Barnet Homes property, we recommend that Mrs Burgess should have contacted Barnet Homes and their caretaking team would clear the mess up as soon as possible. We would also suggest that she rings the police to report this matter as anti-social behaviour. We hope the person who did this is caught as soon as possible. ”