Hartlepool sisters Donna and Kelly Stokes jailed at Teesside Crown Court for joint burglary
Two sisters have been jailed for attacking a woman in her own home and stealing her handbag and phone.
Donna and Kelly Stokes were sentenced at Teesside Crown Court on Wednesday for committing a burglary with violence, while Kelly was also dealt with for another shocking assault on a woman.
The court heard they were both guests in the first victim’s home in Furness Street, Hartlepool, in the early hours of September 6, 2024, when they turned on her.
All three were in the woman’s living room when Donna Stokes, 48, snatched the victim’s phone.
She told Kelly, 47, to take the woman’s handbag which was over her shoulder, said prosecutor Jonathan Gittens.
Both defendants then pushed the victim and Kelly hit her in the face before running away.
The handbag contained a gold watch, bracelet, £15 cash and bank cards.
Police later found it stuffed down the back of Kelly Stokes’ sofa in Turnbull Street.
Mr Gittens said the incident left the victim feeling “scared and frightened for her own safety”.
On January 30 this year, Kelly Stokes then viciously attacked another woman in her home in the Dyke House area, when Stokes wrongly thought her partner was in the victim’s flat.
Mr Gittens said: “When she realised he was not there, she began to punch the victim to the face with clenched fists and dragged her to the floor.”
Stokes repeatedly kicked the woman in the chest, causing two broken ribs.
She later pleaded guilty to actual bodily harm and the earlier burglary, along with her sister.
Stephen Constantine, mitigating for Kelly Stokes, said she had a “decades long” drug addiction and this was her first offence of violence.
“She simply wants to get out and try to put this behind her,” he added.
Jordan Parkinson, for Donna, of Breward Walk, Hartlepool, who has 85 offences on her record, said she had been a victim of domestic abuse and turned to drink and drugs to cope.
Donna Stokes was jailed for two years and six months, while Kelly was given a total of four years.
Judge Amanda Rippon accepted both defendants had had difficult lives, but said: “I’m entirely satisfied that the only appropriate sentence for these very serious offences is immediate custody.”