Teenager jailed for Daisy killing

A teenager was sentenced to seven years at the Old Bailey today for killing a tiny, frail 88-year-old woman in a street mugging for £2 of groceries.

He can be named today for the first time as Michael Manning because since his conviction for manslaughter and robbery he has turned 18 and his identity is no longer protected by law.

Daisy Fenton, a well-known figure in Dulwich, was 4ft 10in tall, weighed only six stone and walked with a stick. She suffered five broken ribs and fractures to her nose, cheek, arm and breastbone in the attack which, when Manning discovered all she had in her shopping bag, he dismissed as a "waste of time".

She died three days later in hospital from a heart attack induced by her injuries on the same day that Manning was carrying out another street robbery, snatching expensive designer trainers from a younger boy. Today Judge Gerald Gordon sentenced Manning to seven years in a young offender institution, telling him he had acted "with callous and total disregard".

He added: "To decent people mugging an old lady is utterly unspeakable. I accept that you expressed remorse but clearly it didn't put you off robbery as you were out robbing that same day. She deserved a quiet, decent twilight to her life but thanks to you she didn't get it. Your conduct has had a devastating and lasting effect on three further generations of her family."

Last March Mrs Fenton left her home in Rosendale Road to buy tissues, tin foil and a Lottery ticket. Manning, then 17, watched her enter the store and told his gang of friends: "I'm going to get her bag." He forced her to the ground but she clung to her purse, which was later found underneath her hands. After a tussle, Manning made off with her shopping bag.

He later met up with his friends, complaining: "There was nothing in her bag, it was a waste of time." But two of his friends were so shocked by what he had done that they gave evidence against him in court.

At first, Manning claimed that they were lying but after his conviction he accused them of putting him up to it. Judge Gordon told him: "You knew Mrs Fenton and you knew of her frailty which was, in any event, obvious. You decided to mug that frail, old lady and having done so you followed her and snatched her bag."

At an earlier hearing Manning, from Croxted Road, Dulwich, had been sentenced to four months' detention and training for the other robbery of the trainers. Detective Inspector Brian Haynes today described the mugging as "a despicable act of extreme cowardice where a strong, fit, young man chose to prey on an elderly and vulnerable woman".

He said Manning had shown "no regard for her at all, using such aggression and violence that she was sent to the ground with so much force she never recovered from her injuries".

He said: " This incident shocked and saddened even experienced detectives who have worked tirelessly to find the person responsible."

He said he was pleased with the guilty verdicts but "our thoughts at this time remain with Mrs Fenton's family who have had someone very special to them suddenly taken from them in such a mindless way".

Members of Mrs Fenton's family, who were in court, issued a statement expressing their relief that Manning had been brought to justice. "It is also a relief to know that having this culprit sent to prison it will make the area of Rosendale Gardens Estate, on the borders of West Norwood and West Dulwich, safer not only for Daisy's elderly friends but also for all those who live in the area."

Commander Brian Paddick of Lambeth Police said the sentence should send a message to potential robbers. "This was a callous act that benefits no one. For a few worthless items of shopping this woman has been deprived of the last years of her life and her family have been left devastated," he said. "The young man responsible now has to come to terms with having been involved in this death and having his own life and that of his family blighted by his actions that day."