Elderly couple 'bound and abandoned'

Sentencing was deferred until Friday

A man has admitted leaving an elderly Edinburgh couple tied up in their home without any food or water after a robbery.

Harold and Elizabeth Snook were trapped for three days before the alarm was raised by a concerned neighbour.

The High Court in Edinburgh was told that the couple both suffered kidney damage due to a lack of water following the robbery, which netted just £128.

It was apparent to the officers that they had been lying there for some time and were in need of immediate medical help

Advocate depute Robert Anthony

Mrs Snook, 87, has since died - although not as a result of her ordeal - and her 83-year-old husband is still in hospital.

Joseph Nelson Howard, 20, admitted robbing the couple and assaulting them to their severe injury after forcing his way into their home in Newington, Edinburgh, on 31 October last year. Sentence was deferred until Friday.

Advocate depute Robert Anthony told the court that Howard was a self-employed odd-job man who normally lived at a travelling people's site in Essex, England.

He had travelled north with his elder brother to visit relatives.

Mr Anthony said that Howard and an accomplice burst into the elderly couple's home when Mr Snook answered his front door.

Too frightened

The couple were both tied up by their assailants.

"Both were too frightened to speak. One of the men told Mr Snook to keep quiet and he would not get hurt," said Mr Anthony.

The robbers began ransacking an upstairs room and asked the couple where their money was stashed.

However, Mr Snook told the men that they were too late.

Howard appeared at the High Court in Edinburgh

Three months earlier £3,000 had been taken from the couple in a robbery.

The men took Mr and Mrs Snook back downstairs while they continued to search the house, eventually finding £128.

They then abandoned the couple, who were still tied up, in a locked room without water or heating.

Mr and Mrs Snook were only discovered three days later when a neighbour noticed that their curtains were still closed and asked her husband to investigate.

Police officers had to smash a window to get into the house, where they found the couple lying on the floor.

Unable to stand

"It was apparent to the officers that they had been lying there for some time and were in need of immediate medical help," said Mr Anthony.

"Mr Snook was apparently aware of his surroundings, but he was distressed and in a great deal of discomfort. He was dehydrated and unable to stand."

The couple were taken to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.

Mrs Snook was described as "gravely unwell, confused and bed-ridden".

Phones cut

"It was established that both had kidney damage as a result of their lack of water," said Mr Anthony.

Mrs Snook died on 17 February, although the pathologist who carried out a post mortem said her death was not caused by her ordeal.

Police investigations found that the phone line to the couple's home had been cut at the time of the robbery.

DNA on a mask recovered by officers was matched to Howard, who was being held in a young offenders' institution in England.