A vicious teenage bandit who threatened to rape an
A vicious teenage bandit who threatened to rape and kill a terrified mum in front of her young children was caged for four-and-a-half years today.
(TUES).
The Common Serjeant of London, Judge Neil Denison, told 17-year-old Luis Santos that he had put the woman and her children ‘through an ordeal of terror’.
‘I have taken into account your tender years and have given you the least sentence for this type of crime,’
‘If you were an adult you would be going down for a very long time.
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‘The woman you attacked and her children are still suffering because of what you did.
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‘And the eldest child is still trying to cope with the aftermath of you actions.
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Knife-wielding Santos forced the mother-of-two into a wardrobe while he ransacked her home looking for cash and gold jewellery.
Trembling with fear, Miss Guilhermina De Souza Cardosa plucked up the courage to push the cowardly intruder over and grab her tiny son from his cot.
But the knifeman tried to wrestle the baby from her clutches during a desperate struggle.
Miss Cardosa and her tot were then forced back into the bedroom cupboard while the robber made off with her gold chain and stereo system.
Santos, who despite his youth already has 23 previous convictions to his name, was unanimously convicted by a jury on August 24, this year, of robbery, aggravated burglary and false imprisonment.
He still denies the charges.
The court had heard how Santos and his victim both hail from Portugal.
They both lived in the same block – Whitehouse, on the Clapham Park Estate, in Clapham, southwest London – and the pair had spoken to each other on occasion.
Selva Ramasamy, prosecuting, said at about 7.
30am on March 21 this year the woman had just got up when she heard a knock on the door.
‘She did not recognise who it was and the man said he was from the council.
‘As she opened the door the man forced the door with his foot.
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Santos, who covered his face with a scarf, grabbed her throat and pointed his knife at her stomach.
He demanded she tell him where she kept her money and gold.
Santos had an accent and the woman recognised it as being Portuguese.
Her five-year-old son, who had just woken up, his in terror, terrified by what was going on.
Santos held the knife to Miss Cardosa and snarled: ‘If you don’t give me the money I’ll kill you.
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He then took her gold chain from around her neck before forcing her in a wardrobe for up to 10 minutes while he searched through her drawers.
When she was allowed out Miss Cardosa saw that Santos was now wearing tights over his face with socks over his hands.
‘He asked her to show him what was in the pockets of items of clothing in the address,’ continued Mr Ramasamy.
‘At one point he pushed her over the bed and said he was going to rape her.
‘He said if she did not do as he said he would kill her.
She said he would not let him do that and found the courage to grab out at the knife.
‘She pushed him to the floor and ran to the children’s bedroom and picked up her baby.
He came in, put a knife to her neck, tried to take the baby from her and again threatened to kill her.
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Santos then forced his tearful victim back into the cupboard before fleeing with a Technics stereo system.
Miss Cardosa identified the assailant to police but when they went to his flat in the same block he was not there.
Santos was not arrested until April 16 when he gave himself up at Kennington Police Station.
He initially denied he had ever been inside Miss Cardosa’s flat.
But his fingerprints were subsequently lifted from the outside of the cupboard into which Miss Cardosa was forced.
The court heard his 23 previous convictions include four domestic burglaries, three thefts, one assault and two public order offences.
ends
