Addicts jailed for 'wicked' attack

Antony Robson and Steven Daw admitted attacking Patricia Hughes

Two men have been jailed for the manslaughter of a woman they mugged in Plymouth.

Heroin addicts Steven Daw and Antony Robson, both aged 31 and from Plymouth, began a series of muggings in October last year, Plymouth Crown Court heard.

One of the women they admitted attacking was Patricia Hughes, 81, who was mugged near Mutley Plain on 4 October.

She was taken to hospital, but died later after suffering a succession of strokes.

Two other women were robbed by the men on the same day.

I regard these offences as being so serious that only a custodial sentence can be justified Judge William Taylor

Robson, who also admitted a series of distraction burglaries on elderly people was jailed for nine-and-a-half years. Daw was jailed for seven.

Both men went out looking for elderly women who were "soft targets" they could easily rob, prosecutor Anthony Donne QC told the Plymouth Crown Court.

The pair mugged Mrs Hughes for her shopping bag on Wilderness Road.

Passers-by took her back to their home and called an ambulance but she lapsed into a coma in hospital just hours after the attack.

She never regained consciousness and died in hospital 20 days later.

Just half-an-hour after robbing Mrs Hughes, the two men targeted their next victim, 80-year-old Kathleen Moyse, near the city centre, Mr Donne said.

DNA tests later linked Robson to Mrs Hughes' bag, which was found abandoned after the robbery.

Daw was also linked via DNA testing to a baseball cap dropped by Robson after the robbery of Mrs Moyse.

Vulnerable targets

Sarah Munroe QC, counsel for Robson, said he had first appeared before a court at the age of 12 and received his first custodial sentence at 16. She said he had a "chronic" addiction to heroin which he started using while in prison.

Martin Meeke QC told the court that Daw, who had been a heroin addict for about six years, had one previous conviction for shoplifting.

Judge William Taylor told the two men their crimes against defenceless, vulnerable targets were "wicked."

He gave them credit for their guilty pleas and said the levels of violence used was the "minimum" necessary to carry out the robberies.

But he said: "The targeting of the elderly in this city to feed drug addiction has become endemic and for that and other reasons I regard these offences as being so serious that only a custodial sentence can be justified."