Car Insurance

A GRIEVING 9/11 widow is being shunned by friends and neighbours… for buying a pounds 30,000 sports car with her compensation money.

Eileen Cirri, who received pounds 1.7million for the death of her policeman husband in the 2001 terror attacks, has seen the sympathy she first received turn to jealousy.

Neighbours now jeer her when she takes her twoseater Dodge Viper out of the drive of her New Jersey home. And she claims the nightmare of living with the huge payout is almost as bad as the loss of her husband.

Eileen told a Channel 4 documentary 9/11 Millionaire Widows: “Perceptions have changed since the attacks. I am living in a goldfish bowl with jealousy and vengeance coming at me. When I pull out of my drive I hear my neighbours say cruel things. But it was always my husband’s dream to own a sports car. I am just honouring his memory. And I would do anything to see him again and say goodbye properly.” Robert, a police lieutenant and part-time paramedic, died in the north tower trying to help a wheelchair-bound woman out of the building.

Eileen’s money came from a pounds 41billion government and public donation compensation fund set up after the attacks to help families left without an income. But widows who took the money had to give up their right to sue the World Trade Centre or the airlines involved in the attacks.

Initially Eileen rejected the offer - branding it “blood money” and vowing to get justice through the courts. But she was forced to accept the payout after her stepchildren sued her for their share. And Eileen is not alone in finding the cash has caused problems. Fellow 9/11 widow Kathy Trant tells how she went on a wild spending spree after receiving pounds 2.6million for the loss of her husband, bond trader Daniel Trant.