Thug who attacked and robbed blind OAP is facing jail after being caught on CCTV after Sun appeal
John Austin gripped Jean Stobbs, 88, so tightly he ripped skin from her arm
A THUG who attacked and robbed a blind OAP in her bungalow is facing jail, thanks to an appeal in The Sun.
John Austin gripped frail Jean Stobbs, 88, so tightly he ripped skin from her right arm, leaving her bleeding.
He knocked her over and stole £400 before blowing cash on beer, scratch cards and ice lollies from the local Spar shop.
He was caught after we ran CCTV images of him fleeing the scene in Colne, Lancs.
Mrs Stobbs feared she would die when Austin burst into her home last April, Burnley Crown Court heard.
He dragged the victim by her arms into her living room before throwing her to the floor.
In a statement read out in court, she said: “He started shouting at me, where’s the money? I thought he was going to kill me.”
Prosecutor Nicholas Clarke said the victim handed over £200 which she kept in a plastic container and £200 from two purses, which included her pension.
Austin ripped a phone wire out of the socket and warned her not to call police for 20 minutes.
She called her daughter Lynda Walker from another line who raced to the scene and found her mum in tears nursing her bleeding arm with a tea towel.
DC Lee Walker told the court traces of Mrs Stobbs’ blood were found on Austin’s hooded top.
He was arrested but denied robbery claiming he couldn’t remember where he was that day. But CCTV footage showed him walking past two local pubs in the town and getting into a taxi.
The brute was also filmed getting a wad of cash out of his pocket to pay for shopping later than night before hugging his pal Susan Carter in celebration.
Austin, who lives in Burnley, struck just five months after serving 12 years of a life sentence for robbing an elderly woman in a sheltered flat in Liverpool.
His probation officer Colin Campbell recognised him from CCTV footage released by cops following this latest attack as he “walked with a distinctive gait like Norman Wisdom.” A neighbour also recognised an image of him on social media.
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On Friday a jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict following a two-day trial in his absence as he refused to come out of his prison cell.
He will be sentenced later.
Thanking the Sun for its coverage, DC Mark Zebrowski said: “Social media is a tool that the police use on a regular basis just to appeal to the public who are another set of eyes that are out there for help but also making them aware of incident and things that are happening and some of the dangers that individuals like this pose.
“So thank you to the media and the agencies, including the Sun, that published the appeal which helped bring this individual to justice.
“It was an awful attack. It was planned by a predatory nasty individual who has gone out with the sole purpose of looking for a vulnerable, weak individual to target.”