A lone widow was violently robbed in a shocking broad daylight street attack by a convicted child abductor.
Thomas Smith had already followed another woman shortly before he turned his attention on the 66-year-old victim. A court heard he pounced with a weapon, believed to be a heavy object wrapped in cloth. CCTV shows Smith running up behind the victim with the weapon in his hand just before he struck.
Newcastle Crown Court heard as the victim struggled to protect herself, Smith twice hit her head with the object, leaving her bleeding from two deep cuts and in need of hospital treatment. Smith, 63, has a previous conviction from the 1990s for abducting a 13-year-old child from the street in Washington and indecently assaulting her as she cried for help before she was rescued by two passing strangers.
