A Good Samaritan pensioner was robbed in her own home after going to the aid of an injured joyrider. The 86-year-old woman found Shaun Kennelly in her garden bleeding and clutching his arm so offered to get him a bandage.
Minutes earlier Kennelly, 25, hurt himself in a crash after leading police on a high-speed chase. Kennelly, who was bare foot and had no shirt on, burst into the woman’s home in Newark, Nottinghamshire, and grabbed her around the throat.
He then forced her to hand over all the cash she had in her purse before fleeing the scene – leaving his victim shaken up and with minor injuries. Kennelly carried out the shocking attack on June 20 last year after going on a one-man rampage an hour earlier.
Earlier in the day, he stole his mother’s car from her driveway and was speeding through Newark town centre when police spotted him driving erratically. He refused to pull over and drove on the wrong side of the road at high speed, narrowly avoiding a head-on collision with another car.
Kennelly was clocked driving at nearly 80mph in a 30mph zone, and after he was cornered he deliberately drove at a police car to ram his way out. He crashed the car but sped away and officers eventually decided to stop the chase over fears for the public’s safety.
Kennelly dumped the damaged car in the Newark Gateway, before fleeing on foot and hiding in the pensioner’s garden. He was arrested hours after robbing the Good Samaritan and answered “no comment” to questions from the police.
Kennelly, of Newark, admitted robbery, dangerous driving, aggravated vehicle taking, driving while disqualified and criminal damage. On Friday (January 13) he was jailed for four years and five months at Nottingham Crown Court. He was also handed a ten-year restraining order against his victim and banned from driving for three years.
Detective Constable Lauren Carpenter, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: “It’s a damning indictment to Kennelly’s character that his first thought when this kindly woman came to his aid was to rob her in her own home.
"His actions that day were absolutely despicable, callous in the extreme, and resulted in his victim suffering a horrible ordeal that she in no way deserved. As if that attack wasn’t bad enough, Kennelly had also earlier demonstrated a complete disregard for the law by driving in a truly disgraceful manner that put other road users at risk of serious harm.”
