A robber who bit an elderly woman’s hand to steal her wedding ring at the height of the coronavirus lockdown has been jailed.
Monique Roach, 24 and of no fixed address, was sentenced to a total of seven years’ in prison on Monday at Wood Green Crown Court.
The victim, a 75-year-old woman, was at her home in Hackney, London on the morning of March 28 when she heard the doorbell ring.
The woman answered the door and Roach, who was crying, asked her for £10.
The victim tried to close the door but Roach blocked it. She then bit the victim’s left hand, took her wedding ring and ran off. The victim immediately contacted her daughter who called the police.
Visit our live blog for the latest updates: Coronavirus news live
Roach left a palm print on the victim’s door and was also captured on CCTV in the vicinity.
She was arrested and charged in April, but in order to strengthen the evidence against Roach and ensure she would be convicted at court, detectives needed the victim to identify her.
As at the time London was in the middle of the strictest phase of lockdown, and the age of the victim meant she was clinically vulnerable, officers were unable to bring her to a police station to carry out an identification parade in the traditional way.
Determined not to delay the case, the investigating officer set up a special identification centre at the victim’s address.
An officer attended the home address of the victim in full protective clothing. He changed into this outside the victim’s address to ensure he was fully sanitised. He entered the address, ensuring he remained significantly distanced from the victim and laid out the identification material inside.
He left the address and explained the process to the victim through a front window of the address. Through this process, the victim successfully identified Roach.
‘Callous and heartless robbery’
Investigating officer detective constable Jack Downey, of the central east basic command unit at the Metropolitan Police, said: ‘This was a callous and heartless robbery whereby Roach targeted a vulnerable lady in her own home.
‘The violence she used left the victim terrified and fearing for her safety, at a time of significant uncertainty as we all navigated our way through coronavirus restrictions and risks.
‘We did not let the challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic stop us from effectively investigating this case. I am grateful to colleagues across the Met who made the identification of this suspect possible and also want to praise the bravery of the victim who – at a time where she felt incredibly vulnerable due to the risks posed by coronavirus – allowed us to support her through this process.
‘I am pleased that Roach has been brought to justice for this brazen crime.’
She pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to one count of robbery and was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment. She additionally pleaded guilty to one count of blackmail and was sentenced to a further year’s imprisonment, to run consecutively.
Roach was also sentenced for a blackmail offence which occurred on April 13 at another address in Hackney.
A few days earlier she had manipulated a vulnerable victim, a man in his 50s, into giving her money after approaching him at his address and informing him that she needed cash for her children.
She tricked him into giving her a total of £105 in cash but later pleaded guilty to the offence.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected].
For more stories like this, check our news page.