Youth locked up after OAP dies

Youth locked up after OAP dies

Apr 6 2004

South London Press

A KINDLY 83-year-old great-grandfather died after being attacked and robbed by a teenage boy, a court heard.

The youth, 16, who cannot be named for legal reasons, demanded money from elderly widower James Brown as he walked home. After telling the youth to leave him alone, Mr Brown was forced into a headlock and pulled to the ground. He was then dragged into a nearby alleyway while the teenager and an accomplice stole £120 from the pensioner's pockets, and his watch and wallet.

Mr Brown, of Minerva Close, Kennington, died four days after the attack, Inner London Crown Court heard on Friday. The youth was originally charged with murder - which was reduced to manslaughter and then to robbery, which he admitted.

Sally Howes, prosecuting, said: "The defendant, together with his friend, approached Mr Brown as he was making his way to his home. They grabbed him around the neck and a struggle followed.

"Mr Brown was put on to the ground after being put into a headlock. The pensioner was then pulled into a nearby alleyway close to his home, where they left him on the floor with his pockets turned inside out."

A post-mortem revealed Mr Brown died from a preexisting neurological problem which may or may have not been aggravated by the attack.

Scientists tested a Nike top found in the teenager's home and discovered fibres on it from Mr Brown's blazer, the court heard. The teenager was arrested two days later, on September 3 last year, after a witness named him.

Amanda Cotcher, defending, said there "could be no excuse for the teenager's actions", but added he had a troubled childhood. He had witnessed the murder of his father, and been brought up by a physically abusive crack cocaine addict.

Sentencing the youth to three-and-a-half years in a young offenders' institution, Judge Jonathan van der Werff said: "This was a nasty robbery carried out by fit young men on a vulnerable old man.

"He died days later in hospital.

"The pathologist cannot say that what you did to him caused his death. But I do not forget the extreme violence that you quite unnecessarily used."

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