A 92-year-old woman was bound, gagged and tied to a chair after a drug addict couple robbed her to feed their heroin habits. The elderly victim was left tied up and locked in her own home in Burnage as vile robbers Leanna Connors and Edward Connors fled with a lifetime worth of jewellery including her wedding ring.
Edward Connors, 30, a convicted rapist, had noticed that the woman had left her window open at about 11pm on a warm June evening last year. He used a set of ladders to climb into her bedroom, Manchester Crown Court heard.
Connors then bound her wrists with a dressing gown cord and ordered her downstairs. He then used the house keys to let in his partner, 29-year-old Leanna Connors.
She took the woman's jewellery off her and ripped out the phone so she couldn't get help. Meanwhile her partner was upstairs on the hunt for more loot.
When he came back downstairs, the 'slight' woman was gagged using a pair of tights and another pair of tights was used to tie up her feet. She was then tied to the chair with a vacuum cleaner cable.
When Connors decided they had plundered enough of her property, they left her tied to the chair in a locked house, having also taken her house key. She was eventually able to free herself and call the police, on Thursday, June 2.
The Connors stole a 22 carat gold wedding ring, another ring, a gold wedding band, and two gold necklaces. Over the coming weeks the woman came to realise just how much jewellery had been stolen by the thieves, some of which were irreplaceable family heirlooms.
The Connors broke into her home in a callous bid to feed their raging drug habits. The victim suffered bruising to her wrists, mouth and arms as a result of her ordeal at their hands.
Leanna Connors wept as a judge initially said she was considering a possible life sentence. But both she and her partner were instead given extended sentences for public protection as they faced justice for the appalling crime.
Prosecutors told how the elderly woman has been traumatised and has since moved home. Sentencing, Judge Rachel Smith said Edward Connors 'exploited her age and fragility'.
The judge told Leanna Connors: "You could and should have turned away and left the scene. You could have gone further and raised the alarm. Instead you joined in with your partner and you did so willingly and with persistence."
Couple struck again
Just weeks later the Connors were back on the streets burgling another home. During a break-in at another property in Burnage, bank cards, a mobile phone, passport, driving licence and beard trimmer were stolen. Minutes earlier on June 20, they had been trying the door of another house nearby.
The victim of the break-in was unable to go on a holiday which was booked for a few days later due to his passport being stolen. The Connors also wracked up £267 worth of purchases at shops including McDonald's and Tesco using a stolen card in the hours after the break-in.
They were identified after police recovered CCTV footage showing the pair making purchases at a petrol station, near to a hotel used to house homeless people where they were staying at the time. Edward and Leanna Connors, both of Wilmslow Road, pleaded guilty to robbery, attempted burglary, burglary and fraud. Edward Connors also pleaded guilty to breaching a sexual harm prevention order.
Edward Connors was sentenced on his 30th birthday. He received a total extended sentence of 14 years, including 10 years and 10 months in prison, and an extended licence period of three years and two months. Leanna Connors was handed a total extended sentence of 12 years, including nine years and nine months in prison, and an extended licence period of two years and three months.
Both were declared 'dangerous' and will have to serve two-thirds of their custodial terms in prison before the Parole Board decide if it is safe for them to be released. Defending Edward Connors, David Thomson said he'd had a 'difficult childhood' and witnessed violence in the home as a child, sharing his time between his separated parents in Dublin and Belfast. He said Connors became addicted to Spice in jail and began using heroin 'quite heavily' after being released.
Connors, a father-of-three, is 'ashamed' of his behaviour and didn't specifically target the elderly victim because of her age, Mr Thomson said. Kay Driver, for Leanna Connors, said drugs had 'blighted' the defendant's life for 'many years' after turning to them when she suffered abuse.
She had been clean but relapsed after learning she'd suffered a miscarriage, the court heard. She said Connors is remorseful and is on a reduced methadone script while 'making progress' with her drug battle, the lawyer said.
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