Drug user who robbed vulnerable lone female walking home alone in Hartlepool sentenced at Teesside Crown Court

Drug user Toni Harrison, 33, snatched the phone from the frightened victim’s hand after pestering her for money.

The victim was walking home alone at about 1.30am on Stockton Road, Hartlepool after a night out on January 27 this year.

She was talking on the phone to family to make her feel safe but encountered Harrison, who was with a man, Teesside Crown Court heard.

Harrison repeatedly asked the victim for money and when she said she didn’t have any, Harrison grabbed her phone.

Emma Atkinson, prosecuting, said: “The victim asked what she thought she was doing. She replied ‘what do you think I’m doing’ and walked off.”

The woman will no longer walk home at night following the robbery.

CCTV showed Harrison get rid of the phone over the wall of Stranton Social Club.

Its SIM card was recovered when Harrison was arrested at an address in Derwent Street later that day.

She lashed out at two police officers, scratching one in the face and biting another on the elbow, before telling them she had previously had hepatitis C.

Stephen Constantine, mitigating for Harrison, of no fixed address, said difficult personal circumstances had to her relying on drugs, but she wants to get clean and live a law-abiding life.

She was jailed for two years after admitting robbery and actual bodily harm assault.

Recorder Andrew Latimer said: “The combination of robbery and assaults on police officers is so serious only immediate custody is called for.”