Woman preyed on elderly

Tracey Virginia McMahon's callous crimes targeting the elderly, the vulnerable and the grieving have cost her another 2 years' jail on top of the four-year term she is already serving.

In the Christchurch District Court yesterday Judge Jane McMeeken catalogued what she termed McMahon's "despicable offending" in burgling rest homes, hospitals, and a school.

"There was a cruelty inherent in your selecting old people's homes and hospitals to burgle. You preyed on vulnerable people."

The proceeds of the daytime crimes, often targeting mealtimes when residents were out of their rooms, were spent on food, tobacco, and drugs by the 34-year-old unemployed woman.

In July, she was sentenced to four years for several burglaries but the other offending around Christchurch had been unearthed since then.

Judge McMeeken noted some of McMahon's crimes:

* Stealing a cellphone from a couple who had just had their first baby and were thus unable to contact family and friends.

* Stealing a couple's specially-made wedding and engagement rings.

* Stealing from a couple going through the tragedy of the death of their unborn baby.

* Stealing from the classrooms of hard-working teachers.

McMahon has been a drug offender from a young age.

- NZPA