Gypsy was high on drugs when he ‘stole the kids’

A teenage car-jacker is facing jail after he inflicted ‘every parent’s worst nightmare’ on mother when he stole her car with her children in the back seat.

Martin Cawley, 19, was high on drugs when he jumped into the black Astra which had been left with the keys still in the ignition by the mother as she popped into a shop on her way to a wedding.

The gypsy roared of with the two screaming youngsters before the terrified 12-year-old girl clambered into the front, opened the door and jumped out.

Her hysterical mother was left standing in the street screaming ‘My baby, my baby’ as Cawley sped away.

He later abandoned the motor and smoked cannabis at his aunt’s house while the tot was found strapped in his car seat on a doorstep three miles away from the shop, Wood Green Crown Court heard.

Cawley was arrested just over two weeks later on July 19 in a squat in Derbyshire and admitted kidnap, abduction and aggravated vehicle taking the following month.

The mother and her family looked on from the public gallery as Cawley, sporting a black eye from a prison scuffle, appeared via video-link from Pentonville to be sentenced.

Prosecutor Nicholas Cribb said: ‘At the plea hearing the Crown said that this case represented every parent’s worst nightmare and it is a position we do not renege from.

‘This was an offence of unspeakable cruelty to the children involved and their parents.

‘However, for these parents the nightmare was arguably made worse because it was not one but two of the children that were taken away, abducted, kidnapped, when Mr Cawley – whilst high on drugs – stole the family car containing their two children.’

The 27-year-old mother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was on her way to a wedding on Saturday July 2 this year when she stopped off in Kempe Road, Enfield, north London.

‘When she popped into a shop to get some crisps she left her 12-year-old daughter in the back with her 11-month-old son,’ continued the prosecutor.

‘She only ever intended to be in the shop for a few seconds so she left her keys in the ignition and the driver’s door open.’

Cawley climbed into the open door and drove off as the schoolgirl clambered into the seat beside him before throwing herself out.

Shocking CCTV footage captured the dramatic moment her daughter leapt from the car.

‘One can only imagine the fear as she jumped from the moving vehicle and landed on her right side in the middle of the road, grazing her elbow,’ said Mr Cribb.

‘When she looked up, the car was gone with her 11-month-old baby brother.

‘She said at this point that she was scared and could not see where the car had gone.’

Miraculously, the schoolgirl brushed off the scrape and could be seen running towards her mother as the Astra disappeared up the road.

Her terrified called police who recovered the car 40 minutes later using the Find My iPhone app outside the home of a block of flats 15-minutes away in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire.

She described in a statement that she expected to find her car ‘just up the road’ but did not.

‘That was when I realised that, oh my God, they have taken my baby,’ she said.

‘Up until that point I only thought he wanted the car.’

The mother added: ‘I actually thought I would never see him again.’

Cawley sighed with his head in his hands as she went on to describe the fear of bumping into him disappearing after his arrest and the issues she expects when the time comes to leave him with strangers as he starts school.

Tom Kharram, defending said: ‘This defendant is truly sorry for his involvement in these matters.’

Mr Kharram explained that the traveller may have been helped by a psychiatric report but refused to co-operate.

‘This defendant, as it were, never intended to kidnap, abduct, these two children,’ he added.

‘He said he wanted the court to know that he is very, very, sorry.

‘He did not intend, in his own words, to steal the children.’

Judge Noel Lucas, QC, will pass sentence later.

Cawley, originally of Kentish Town, northwest London but currently of no fixed address, admitted kidnap, abduction and aggravated vehicle taking.