A young mum out walking with her baby was struck over the head by a drug addict who stole her purse.
The woman fell to the ground when Michael Roberts landed the blow, and her baby's buggy toppled over.
He had followed her from a local library attacked her as she headed towards a park.
Within ten minutes, the 57-year-old was using the woman's bank card to buy cigarettes in a convenience store.
Roberts, who had trailed the woman from West Kirby library, went to Birkenhead to change his clothes but then returned to the West Kirby the following day, May 16.
He went into the West Kirby Tap pub on Grange Road and sat next to a woman who was on crutches. When she left her seat he stole her purse and used her card in local shops.
Roberts, of Borough Road, Seacombe, was arrested later that day.
Detective Constable Kevin Thomas said: "The actions of Roberts over those two May days were desperate and despicable.
"To target a woman out with her young child, and then a second woman on crutches, is beyond belief.
"Thankfully, the victim of the robbery and her child were not seriously hurt, but the emotional impact is harder to measure. We will continue do all in our powers to find and put before the courts those who assault, threaten steal from those in our communities.”
At Liverpool crown court today, Roberts was jailed for five years.
