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23
Jan
Harrogate man who punched and robbed disabled pensioner jailed
Harrowing video footage of a disabled pensioner being punched and robbed in broad daylight by a notorious Harrogate man has resulted in a jail sentence of nearly four years for the attacker.
The victim, who suffers from scoliosis or curvature of the spine, is seen walking home from a cash machine followed by John Paul Wilson, 25, who stalked behind him after the elderly man had withdrawn £120 from a cash point at the Texaco garage on Skipton Road in Harrogate.
The victim, who was stooped over and used a walking stick due to his debilitating back condition, was followed all the way home by Wilson who attacked him near the side or rear of his house, York Crown Court heard.
Prosecutor Jordan Richardson said:
As (the named victim) is approaching his home (on Skipton Road), he is pushed over and punched by a male who is later identified as the defendant.
During the attack, the defendant took £120 and a Nokia phone from (the victim’s pocket) as he was on the ground.
In CCTV footage of the dreadful incident played in court, the victim’s piercing shrieks and cries of pain could be heard as he shouts: “Help! Help! Help!”
His desperate shouts were interspersed with a woman screaming and shouting at the attacker: “What are you doing?”
Wilson, who had been with another man but carried out the attack on his own, was captured running from the scene in jogging bottoms which were later seized by police.
He was arrested two days later and picked out in an ID parade by the victim who suffered bruising and a cut to his lip.
‘Unenviable’ record
Wilson, from Harrogate, was charged with robbery – the third of his criminal career – but initially denied the allegation in the teeth of the evidence. He later pleaded guilty on the day his trial was due to be held.
He appeared for sentence via video link today (January 23) after being remanded in custody.
The prosecution outlined Wilson’s “unenviable” criminal record which included four offences against the person, theft and two previous robberies - one in 2017 when he was a youth and another in 2021.
The latter incident occurred in Ripon where Wilson and a youth robbed a young boy at knifepoint in front of the Ship Inn on Bondgate.
They threatened to “shank” the terrified boy as they stripped him of his jewellery and mobile phone and stole his Nike trainers, leaving him in tears.
The victim had been sat with friends on a bench in Bondgate when he was approached by Wilson and others including the youth robber over whom Wilson had exercised a “malign influence”.
Wilson, formerly of Newby Crescent, Harrogate, but currently of no fixed abode, was jailed for three-and-a-half years for that robbery.
He was released from prison in May 2023 but his “poor behaviour” back out in the community led to police issuing an appeal for the public’s help in tracing him as he was wanted on recall to prison.
The robbery of the elderly man in Harrogate, which occurred at about 11am on July 22 last year, put Wilson in breach of a conditional discharge for shop theft imposed just a few days before the horrific attack.
'Uphill battle'
Defence barrister Marc Luxford conceded that mitigating for Wilson was an “uphill battle”.
He said that Wilson, who had grown up “without a male role model”, started getting into trouble as a youth by committing “mainly theft offences with older males”, before moving onto robbery.
He said that Wilson had “myriad” mental-health issues exacerbated by Class A drug use.
He said there had been a “stand-off” with police when Wilson was arrested in the loft of a house in Harrogate.
Recorder Simon Jackson KC told Wilson:
You attacked an elderly man and we have seen him on the video…with scoliosis of the spine as we see him stooped over with a walking stick.
He had been to a cash machine. You were certainly behind him in the street and when he went round a corner, you were accompanied by somebody else, but you acted alone.
You attacked (the victim). Remarkably, we have the sound of this poor man shrieking and screaming as you assaulted him in order to carry out this attack.
You searched his pockets and you took the money, leaving him there. The sound that the victim (made) reveals that he would have been shaken, shocked and distressed, both then and for a reasonable period thereafter.
Mr Jackson added:
You have an unenviable record for your age. I’m satisfied that this is an entrenched pattern of behaviour that warrants…immediate custody for the protection of the public.
Wilson was jailed for three years and nine months.
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