Convicted rapist jumped into moving car and robbed woman driver

Steven Partington was spotted on CCTV at the junction of Lower Parliament Street and King Edward Street in Nottingham city centre on November 7, last year, said prosecutor Stuart Pattinson.

As his victim's car began to move away from the traffic lights, Partington jumped in. She saw him in the rear view mirror and screamed.

"He told her to stay calm and drive," said Mr Pattinson. "He leant forward and grabbed the left sleeve of her jacket. He grabbed the gearstick and she thought he was trying to control the car."

She tried ‘frantically’ to attract the attention of other road users during her five-minute ordeal.

Partington stole her handbag and a bag containing toiletries and jumped out of the car five minutes later.

He took £350 in cash and £200 of gift cards and ditched the handbag in a car park, along with a green jacket containing a bail sheet with his details.

The items were found three days later and DNA on a face mask was also linked to Partington.

Mr Pattinson described how a drunk Partington was arrested on Sutton Road, Mansfield, after ‘behaving inappropriately’ to two young children, the day before.

As he was arrested he kept trying to take his trousers off, Mr Pattinson said.

"He defecated all over one cell and smeared food over another at Mansfield Police station."

In a ‘remarkable piece of police work"’officers reconstructed Partington's path from the police station to the moment when he jumped into the car, using CCTV from moving buses.

The court was told he has 28 convctions for 97 offences, including rape in 2001 and a street robbery in 2007.

In a statement, his victim spoke about the ‘profound emotional impact’ the robbery had on her and is now ‘constantly in fear of what might happen’.

"She felt unsafe in her own home and is petrified if someone came to the door."

"She is effectively a prisoner in her own home. She was selected because she was a female on her own."

Digby Johnson, mitigating, said the 2007 robbery involved Partington’s cousin and was committed in ‘pursuit of a long-running argument’.

"He has spent a long time in custody since then but the offending has been of a very different nature. He did have the decency to enter that plea when he did."

He said the circumstances were ‘worrying’ but it was ‘clear Mr Partington's ability to plan anything was reduced by what he had consumed’.

"What he was after was a handbag out of a car," he said.

He said Partington was the carer for his long-term partner after she suffered a stroke, but ‘lost his ability to cope’ and sought solace in alcohol and mamba.

"He lost his compass completely and behaved in the horrible way described on November,” he said.

Partington, 45, of no fixed address, admitted robbery and unlawfully carrying away his victim by force on January 8.

On Wednesday, Judge Rosalind Coe QC sentenced him to four years and eight months. He will serve up to half the time in prison before he is eligible for parole.

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