A vulnerable woman was abused, beaten up and robbed by two drunk women in Neath town centre, a court has heard. A judge wondered what people walking or driving past the incident – which happened on a Sunday evening – would have made of it all.
Sarah Morgan and Gemma Powell were among a gathering of “loud and intoxicated” women outside an off licence when set upon their victim. Morgan had already been jailed by magistrates for 16 weeks for assault occasioning actual bodily harm when Powell appeared in the dock of charged with robbery. A judge said Morgan had “escaped” with her 16-week sentence and described the way her case had been dealt with as “mind boggling”. Powell has been jailed for 21 months.
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Hannah George, prosecuting, told the court that on the evening of October 27 last year the complainant in the case – a woman in her 40s with mild learning difficulties – went to the Booze Express shop in town centre to buy a can of lager. She said outside the store were a number of women drinking alcohol who were described as being “loud and intoxicated”. The court heard the complainant recognised the women from having seen them around town but was not a friend of theirs.
The prosecutor said the complainant bought her can of lager but as she was leaving the shop one of the group – Morgan – began verbally abusing and threatening her before striking her to the face causing a wound which started bleeding heavily. Morgan then began mocking and insulting the injured woman. The court heard Powell then approached the injured woman and initially seemed to be tending to her head wound before demanding she had over the bag. When the woman refused, Powell grabbed her bag and forcibly ripped it from her shoulder during a struggle before pushing her against a wall. Once in possession of the bag Powell rummaged through its contents and took the woman’s phone.
The court heard the victim contacted her sister for help who in turn called the police. Officers found Powell near the town’s Wetherspoon pub and when approached she dropped the stolen phone. After being arrested she shouted abuse at the officers. In her subsequent interview she answered “no comment” to all questions asked. Meanwhile the victim was taken to Moriston Hospital where a wound to her head was cleaned and closed. The court heard the victim declined to provide an impact statement for the court.
Gemma Powell, 31, of Church Place, Neath, had previously pleaded guilty to robbery when she appeared in the dock for sentencing. She has 15 previous convictions for 27 offences including two batteries and eight theft and kindred matters. Stuart John, for Powell, said the defendant has little recollection of the night in question due to the “significant” amount of alcohol she had consumed. He said the defendant had been working with the Dyfodol drugs agency and had been prescribed the heroin substitute buprenorphine which had worked to “hold” Powell’s addiction but said she then took the decision to consume alcohol and Valium tablets which was “very much a tragedy for her”. The advocate said the pre-sentence report before the court touched upon his client’s post-traumatic stress disorder and bi-polar condition and said those issues needed to be addressed as well as her substance misuse.
