Burglar jailed after battering deaf pensioner for £1.06

From: This is London - London,England,UK - Dec 12, 2006

A burglar who battered a deaf pensioner for just £1.06 was today jailed for nine years.

Barry Jemmett left Jimmy Mundell for dead after he was disturbed breaking into the 76-year-old's caravan in February this year.

Jemmett and his accomplice, Christopher Crane, beat Mr Mundell unconscious before Jemmett rifled through the pensioner's pockets and made off with his spare change.

The 24-year-old was high on a cocktail of heroin, valium and alcohol when he and Crane burst into Mr Mundell's home in Etherley Bank, West Auckland, County Durham.

When Mr Mundell - known in his local community as a "bit of a character" - tried to fight back he was beaten unconscious and left for dead, Durham Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor Christopher Dorman O'Gowan said: "They both set about punching Mr Mundell in the head and body.

"Mr Mundell managed to pick up a knife because he thought his life was about to end at this point.

"Mr Jemmett managed to pull the knife away causing a cut to his hand. The two men then fled the scene with a quantity of cash."

The prosecutor added: "They left Mr Mundell in a desperate state. He was left with what can be described as life-threatening wounds."

Mr Mundell had to undergo treatment for a broken nose and severe bruising.
The pensioner, who had lived in the caravan for three decades, has since suffered long-term mental health problems as a result of the horrific attack.

Jailing the 24-year-old heroin addict, Judge Guy Whitburn QC told Jemmett that it was a "horrific burglary and savage attack", leaving Mr Mundell for dead.

He told him: "You pleaded guilty at the first opportunity to this horrific attack upon 76-year-old James Mundell in his own caravan on that particular night.

"You two left him for dead. The fact is that you left him for dead and there is no doubt that both of you thought he would die. Whilst he was unconscious you rifled his pockets.

"This is one of the worst cases of this type that I have come across."

Jemmett, of Sydenham Road in Hartlepool, pleaded guilty last month to burglary and causing grievous bodily harm with intent, on the basis that he did not use a weapon during the attack.

Crane, 24, of Low Martin Field Farm, Gilmonby, West Auckland, was jailed earlier this year for nine years after admitting the same charges.

Mr Dorman O'Gowan said Jemmett had almost a hundred previous convictions for burglary, assault, affray, theft and shoplifting.

Last year Jemmett told his local newspaper, the Hartlepool Mail, he was "going straight". Instead of committing thefts, burglaries and criminal damage, he was working as a farm hand and going to church every Sunday.

Jemmett said: "I'm just so ashamed of what I was like and what I did to people. I was uncontrollable.

"I'm different now, I think differently, and I'd never go back to being what I was like.

"I've realised there's more to life and I don't ever want to risk losing that."

© 2006 This is London