Mansfield burglar targeted elderly victims and tried to snatch wedding ring from 88-year-old dementia sufferer
A Mansfield burglar who targeted elderly victims and tried to snatch the wedding ring from an 88-year-old dementia sufferer’s finger has been locked up for six years.
Connor Cooper ransacked a 67-year-old woman's bungalow after smashing a rear bedroom window on Bawtry Road, Doncaster, while she was out, on January 7, said Samatha Howard, prosecuting.
She came home to find he had stolen a carriage clock, £350 in cash, jewelry including two gold chains, a diamond watch, two gold tie pins that belonged to her husband and 60 years of keepsakes. The total value of the burglary is estimated at £30,000.
Four days later Cooper, aged 24, smashed his way into an address on Hawton Road, in Newark, and stole jewellery belonging to the owner's late wife.
CCTV showed him making off with a pillow case and he was later seen discarding items on the banks of the Trent.
Later that day an 88-year-old woman with dementia was found "shocked and distressed," in her Bowbridge Road home.
She constantly repeated that a man had entered her home and taken her belongings, including her late father's wallet and a purse.
After a short foot chase, Cooper was arrested and discarded a backpack containing a screwdriver and a balaclava.
Nottingham Crown Court heard he told police he was acting under compulsion.
He has 12 previous convictions for 35 offences, including 11 dwelling house burglaries.
Lauren Manuel, mitigating, said Cooper deserved credit for his early guilty pleas and has only been at liberty for ten months in last eight years.
"The depressing reality is this is all he has ever known," she said. "He had an atrocious upbringing.
"He was brought up by criminals and witnessed a huge amount of violence in his family home. He feels he never even had a chance in life."
Cooper, aged 24, of no fixed address, Mansfield, admitted robbery, three counts of burglary, and going equipped for theft when he appeared at
“Your last sentences have been three years and four years, respectively,” Judge Michael Auty KC told him on Friday, March 13. “I'm afraid the sentences from now are going up and up and up.”