Elderly mugging victim sees robber jailed

By David Clarkson

Mugging victim Patricia Burrows, 87, got to call the attacker who broke her pelvis a “low-life” in court today and she saw him jailed for five years ten months.

Thirty-six-year-old Francis Allan Charles Borrell says he regrets this offending more than everything else he has committed over many years of offending to support his drug habit.

But the crown and the judge noted that he only pleaded guilty when a pre-trial argument was dismissed, stitching up his identification as the man who ran from the Barrington Mall carpark after up-ending Mrs Burrows.

Borrell has never held a full-time job because of his on-going offending and jail time. He was on a sickness benefit when he snatched Mrs Burrows’ handbag on December 3, 2009, picking up the frail woman and flinging her onto the ground where she injured her head and broke her pelvis.

Shortly before the scheduled start of his trial in December, Borrell pleaded guilty to the aggravated robbery charge, and a charge of attempting to unlawfully take a car.

He admitted he was “out of it on drugs” when he committed both offences, and the court was told that he had been an emotional wreck after his sister committed suicide the previous month.

Mrs Burrows’ victim impact statement was read in court by her daughter. She said she weighed 42kg at the time of the attack, while she was recovering from surgery and cancer treatment. The injuries put her in hospital for a month when she could not care for her 92-year-old husband, who has dementia, or her son who has had a stroke.

She was now hyper-vigilant. “I no longer go out in the evening and I constantly look around me everywhere I go. I feel the need to warn other women and girls to be careful.

“Before the attack I was always pretty trusting and saw the good in everyone. Now I am cautious and worry about what people’s ulterior motives are.”

Crown prosecutor Dierdre Elsmore said Borrell had effectively robbed Mrs Burrows of her last years of independence and taken away her role as the active caregiver for her family.

Defence counsel Lee-Lee Heah said Burrows apologised to the victim and said he was truly sorry for what he had done and the consequences for her and her family. The purse-snatch was a spur of the moment decision. Borrell later said he did not realise his victim was an old woman.

She said Borrell had been “trapped in a vicious cycle of offending”. “He accepts that at the end of the day he has to take full responsibility for the way his life has turned out.”

Judge Gary MacAskill noted that Borrell had been jailed for other aggravated robberies for five years in 1993 and six years in 2001. He had been on a sickness benefit because of depression, and he had hepatitis C. A psychological report indicated he had low mood and social phobia.

He was seen as a high risk of reoffending and he had a propensity to place his needs above others’. He had not responded to treatment inside or outside prison.

Judge MacAskill jailed him for five years ten months with a non-parole term of four years. He ordered him to pay reparations of $500 after his release.