A pair of heroin addicts subjected a 92-year-old woman to a terrifying ordeal as they robbed her for drugs money, Manchester Crown Court heard yesterday (March 29).
Edward and Leanna Connors stole jewellery, including a number of irreplaceable family heirlooms, from the “traumatised” woman after tying her up and gagging her with a pair of tights.
The horrifying attack took place on June 11 last year. It had been an unusually warm evening and the woman had left her bedroom window open.
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Convicted rapist Edward Connors, 30, a convicted rapist, noticed the open window at about 11pm and used a set of ladders to climb into the woman’s bedroom.
After trying the terrified woman up with her own dressing-gown cord, reports the Manchester Evening News, he let his partner in through the front door.
Together the couple stole a 22 carat gold wedding ring, another ring, a gold wedding band, and two gold necklaces. Over the following weeks the woman came to realise just how much jewellery had been taken by the thieves.
When Connors decided they had plundered enough of the woman's property, they left her tied to the chair in a locked house, having also taken her house key. She was eventually able to free herself and call the police, on Thursday, June 2.
The victim suffered bruising to her wrists, mouth and arms as a result of her horrifying ordeal.
Leanna Connors wept as a judge initially said she was considering a possible life sentence. But both she and her partner were instead given extended sentences for public protection as they faced justice for the appalling crime.
Prosecutors told how the elderly woman has been traumatised and has since moved home. Sentencing, Judge Rachel Smith said Edward Connors 'exploited her age and fragility'.
The judge told Leanna Connors: "You could and should have turned away and left the scene. You could have gone further and raised the alarm. Instead you joined in with your partner and you did so willingly and with persistence."
The pair were caught after being spotted on CCTV using a credit card that they had stolen in another robbery.
They both pleaded guilty to robbery, attempted burglary, burglary and fraud. Edward Connors also pleaded guilty to breaching a sexual harm prevention order.
Edward Connors was sentenced on his 30th birthday. He received a total extended sentence of 14 years, including 10 years and 10 months in prison, and an extended licence period of three years and two months.
Leanna Connors was handed a total extended sentence of 12 years, including nine years and nine months in prison, and an extended licence period of two years and three months.
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