Mugger who dragged 92-year-old woman along the pavement during robbery is jailed

A mugger who dragged a 92-year-old woman along the pavement and robbed her has been jailed.

Sanchez Edwards, 28, targeted the recently-widowed woman as she was out posting a letter.

She is now too terrified to leave her house following the attack in Hoxton, east London.

Graphic pictures released by police revealed the appalling injuries she suffered.

Edwards, a paranoid schizophrenic, with a history of drug abuse, was sentenced to five years and eight months at Wood Green Crown Court.

Sentencing Edwards, Judge Joanna Greenburg told him:

Edwards attacked the pensioner in Hoxton Street on the afternoon of June 27th last year.

She had just been to post a letter and had turned into an alleyway that leads to a medical centre.

But Edwards had followed her from the street into the alleyway. As she entered the grounds of the medical centre she was attacked from behind.

He grabbed her handbag and made several attempts to pull it away from her, forcing her to the ground.

The victim screamed and refused to let go of her bag and Edwards dragged her along the floor until she was in so much pain that she eventually let go.

Edwards then ran back into the alleyway and made off.

The victim sustained extensive bruising all over her body, and was left with several cracked ribs.

Edwards was named by several people as being the attacker.

It was established that Edwards was a patient at the medium-secure John Howard psychiatric facility in Hackney and had failed to return from unescorted leave from the centre on May 17 last year despite having assaulted a member of staff there.

Edwards was found to be using buses and travelling through London Underground Stations across London.

On July 10, officers spotted Edwards in the Bethnal Green area of east London.

But when Edwards saw the police he ran off, but he was chased down and detained.

He refused to answer any questions when interviewed. He was charged with robbery on the same day.

In a victim impact statement, the victim explained how she was too afraid to leave her house after the incident and lost her independence.

She suffers re-occurring nightmares and still cannot sleep on her left side due to the pain. She described herself as "a shadow of her former self".

The victim had recently lost her husband, to whom she had been married for 68 years and served in the Royal Navy. She had been his carer for the last 10 years.