GRANDMOTHER Rita Murphy, 76, was brutally bashed in her own home and left with horrific injuries, yet the attack didn't come as a complete surprise.

The 22-year-old man who attacked Rita and her daughter Anne-Maree, 51, was well known to them as were his mental health problems.

Rita had barred the man from coming to her Toowoomba home, but last Tuesday he barged through her front door, knocking Anne-Maree aside, and refusing to leave.

Just last week police had taken him to Toowoomba's Mental Health Unit under a Justice Examination Order so his mental condition could be assessed, but he was released back on to the street days later.

Knowing well the symptoms of the man's drug-induced psychosis and schizophrenia, Rita said she feared he would one day become violent toward others.

"But I didn't know it was going to be us," she said from her hospital bed.

Rita said their attacker went on a rampage, punching both women. She had also been kicked.

"I thought we were dead," Rita said. "I told him I was going to call the police and he walked over and whacked me.

"When Anne-Maree came to pick me up, he whacked her too.

"She was knocked out and I went to help her and he whacked me again.

"He threw the phone off the hook and locked the doors.

"I thought we were had it."

Both women were hospitalised after the event.

Rita sustained horrific facial injuries including a badly broken nose, fractured cheek and jaw, and large cuts above both eyes which required stitching.

She will undergo an operation for her facial injuries next week and has extensive bruising to most of her body.

Both women say their attacker was a good young man who had gone off the rails when he started using illicit drugs a few years ago.

Despite their ordeal, both believe he would be better served, as would the community, if he was in a secure mental health facility rather than a prison.

"He was on an ITO (involuntary treatment order under the Mental Health Act), but he just walked out," Rita said.

The 22-year-old man has been charged with the assaults and remanded in custody.