Evening Standard/London
The leader of a gang of muggers who targeted professional women walking home alone at night has been jailed for nine years.
Junior Cooper, 35, and his accomplices choked their victims in three violent attacks in central London last year. One, pianist Susanne Suhonen, suffered a broken finger and may never be able to play properly again.
The women were all grabbed from behind and their handbags wrenched from their grasp.
Sentencing Cooper, Judge Michael Grieve said: “Extreme planning was involved in all the robberies. Women on their own likely to have valuable goods were targeted.”
Cooper, who had been jailed in 2009 for a spate of robberies, drove the gang around in a stolen Audi looking for vulnerable women.
Jacqueline Hurst had just parked her car near her home in Marylebone at 10.30pm last November when she was attacked by the thugs. She was grabbed around the waist and choked her with her own silk scarf, Southwark crown court heard.
In the struggle she was knocked to the ground and continues to suffer the psychological effects.
“Before the attack I was a confident girl, happy, fun and totally unfazed by city living,” she said in a statement read to the court. “Everything has changed and I am half the woman I used to be — at all times day or night I am looking behind myself.”
About half an hour after the attack on Ms Hurst, Sarah Lewishon was attacked as she walked from her car to her house in St John’s Wood.
She too was grabbed around the neck and knocked down but she bravely refused to let go of her handbag and was dragged along the ground.
She now suffers severe neck pain and is terrified to go out at night unaccompanied.
Cooper, of Queens Park, and accomplice Remy McLeod, 19, of no fixed abode, were convicted by a jury of conspiracy to rob last month.
McLeod refused to come to court from prison and will be sentenced on September 9.
A man was yesterday recovering in hospital after being shot and stabbed at a home in Pimlico.
The 23-year-old victim was last night found by paramedics with a gunshot wound to the leg and stab wounds in his torso at the property in Cumberland street, police said.
Officers were called by the London Ambulance Service at around 12.20am after reports of an injured man.
The victim was taken to a central London hospital when he is in a serious but not life-threatening condition, police said.
Officer’s from the Met’s gang crime unit are investigating. There have been no arrests.
Police are hunting for a gang who attacked an off-duty policeman with bolt-cutters after he challenged them for stealing bikes.
The 57-year-old witnessed the group of four leaving Vauxhall train station without using an oyster card at around 10.50am on July 17 and decided to follow them to a bike rack nearby.
He saw one of the suspects take out a pair of croppers and attempt to steal bicycles chained to the rack.
But when the victim called 999 and identified himself as a police officer he was whacked in the head with the bolt-croppers, causing him to fall to the ground. The four suspects fled the scene towards South Lambeth Road.
The policeman was taken to hospital with a head injury and was discharged later that day.
A 15-year-old boy was arrested in connection with the investigation on July 23 and has since been bailed to return to a south London police station in late September, pending further enquiries.
Investigating officers have released CCTV images of three people they would like to speak to in connection with the assault.
Detective Constable Sarah Francis, of Lambeth CID, said: “If you recognise any of these people, or indeed witnessed this incident then please get in touch.
“This attack happened in broad daylight and resulted in the victim receiving hospital treatment. I urge members of the community to come forward if they have any information with regards to the incident to help us catch those responsible.”
Police wish to speak to a man missing his left ear after another man was slashed in the face in north London.
Scotland Yard have told members of the public to not approach Anthony John Kenny, 25, but to call 999 if they see him.
They wish to speak to Kenny after a man was attacked in Green Lanes, Stoke Newington, at 12.20am on Saturday morning. The victim suffered slash wounds to the face.
Police said Kenny is white and missing his left ear. He also has a tattoo reading ‘Stand alone’ on his neck and ‘north London’ on his left hand.
He has links with Islington, Chelmsford and St Albans.
Junior Cooper
