Elderly mugging victim sees attacker jailed

File Photo

Eighty-seven-year-old Christchurch mugging victim Patricia Burrows got to call the attacker who broke her pelvis a "low-life" in court today, where she saw him jailed for nearly six years.

Francis Allan Charles Borrell, 36, says he regretted this offending more than everything else he committed over many years of offending to support his drug habit.

But the crown and the judge noted that he pleaded only guilty when a pre-trial argument was dismissed, stitching up his identification as the man who ran from the Barrington Mall carpark after up-ending Mrs Burrows.

Borrell snatched Mrs Burrows' handbag on December 3, 2009, picking up the small and frail woman and flinging her to the ground where she injured her head and broke her pelvis.

Shortly before the scheduled start of his trial in December, he pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery charge and attempting to unlawfully take a car.

He said he was "out of it on drugs" and had been an emotional wreck after his sister committed suicide the previous month.

Mrs Burrows' victim impact statement was read in court by her daughter. She said she weighed 42kg at the time of the attack -- she was recovering from surgery and cancer treatment.

The injuries put her in hospital for a month when she could not care for her 92-year-old husband, who has dementia, or her son who has had a stroke.

She was now hyper-vigilant.

"I no longer go out in the evening and I constantly look around me everywhere I go. I feel the need to warn other women and girls to be careful.

"Before the attack I was always pretty trusting and saw the good in everyone. Now I am cautious and worry about what people's ulterior motives are."

Crown prosecutor Deirdre Elsmore said Borrell had effectively robbed Mrs Burrows of her last years of independence and taken away her role as the active caregiver for her family.

Defence counsel Lee-Lee Heah said Borrell apologised to the victim and said he was truly sorry for what he had done and the consequences for her and her family. The purse-snatch was a spur of the moment decision. Borrell later said he did not realise his victim was an elderly woman.

She said Borrell had been "trapped in a vicious cycle of offending".

"He accepts that at the end of the day he has to take full responsibility for the way his life has turned out."

Judge Gary MacAskill noted Borrell had been jailed for other aggravated robberies for five years in 1993 and six years in 2001.

Judge MacAskill jailed him for five years and 10 months with a non-parole term of four years. He ordered him to pay reparations of $500 after his release.

- NZPA