A convicted killer was warned he could face life i
A convicted killer was warned he could face life imprisonment today (fri) for the brutal armed robbery of a frail widow in her home.
Violet Cooper, 78, told how cowardly Junior Samuel held a gun to her head in a terrifying night time raid and threatened to ‘splash her brains all over the carpet.
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She had been watching TV when Samuel climbed in through her bedroom window and robbed her of her wedding and engagement rings and her watch.
But while Samuel, 27, was looting her bedroom, plucky Mrs Cooper seized her chance and fled to a neighbour’s house two doors away.
Samuel, of (9) Byron Court, Lordship Lane Estate, East Dulwich, south London, had admitted one count of robbery of money and jewellery.
A jury today (fri) convicted Samuel of possessing a firearm or imitation firearm at the time of the robbery.
Samuel had denied that he was armed at the time.
ATTN NEWSDESKS – TOTAL BLANKET ON REPORTING THIS CASE UNTIL FURTHER ORDER.
It then emerged that in June 1994 he was locked up for seven years at the Old Bailey for manslaughter and robbery.
The Judge, Mr Recorder Douglas Day, QC, warned Samuel that there is a ‘risk’ he faces life imprisonment under the so-called ‘two strikes and you’re out’ law.
The court heard how Samuel struck after clambering up scaffolding outside Mrs Cooper’s block of flats at (202) Ladlands on the Dawson Heights estate, Dulwich, southeast London on 28 August last year.
‘I was in the living room sitting on the settee watching television.
I saw him outside the bedroom door,’ said Mrs Cooper, who lives alone in the one-bedroom flat.
‘I said: ‘How the hell did you get here.
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‘I couldn’t believe it.
I just watched him.
‘Samuel said: ‘You better behave because I have got a gun.
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‘Then he showed it to me.
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Callous Samuel, who is of muscular build, then shoved Mrs Cooper face down on her living room floor and jumped on top of her, the court heard.
He then held the gun against her head and said: ‘If you say anything I’ll splash your brains all over the carpet.
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He pulled her back off the floor and put her on the settee.
The jury heard he climbed up the stairs to her bedroom and then waved the gun around at her while he proceeded to ransack her bedroom, tipping out drawers from her tallboy in a frantic search for cash.
‘He kept waving the gun at me.
He was teasing me.
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‘He kept saying: ‘I’ve got this.
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Mrs Cooper then demonstrated how Samuel waved the gun from side to side to the court.
Samuel said that he was looking for money while he brandished the black handgun which was four inches from the barrel to the trigger.
‘While he was taking stuff out of the drawers he kept saying: ‘I’m still watching you,” Mrs Cooper told the court.
Then, while Samuel was distracted, Mrs Cooper ‘shot out of the hall and went to my neighbours two doors down.
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Mrs Cooper was taken to Kings College Hospital, Camberwell where she was treated for bruises to her face and body.
Defending Samuel, Mr John Barker suggested to the woman that there was no gun although he added:
‘Of course you were burgled in the way that you say and your property was stolen and it was a horrible incident.
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But Mrs Cooper told the jury.
‘I know a gun when I see one – and he made sure that I saw it.
‘He was frightening the life out of me.
Anyone else in my position would have done the same thing,’ Mrs Cooper said.
‘I didn’t want my brains blown out.
I wasn’t going to ask him to show me how it works, was I?’
Samuel was caught after his fingerprints were found on the window ledge outside Mrs Cooper’s flat.
He was arrested on November 3 last year.
Samuel initially denied the robbery of Mrs Cooper’s flat when interviewed by detectives.
However, Mrs Cooper picked out Samuel at an identity parade in Kilburn and Samuel was charged with the break-in.
ends
ATTN NEWSDESKS – TOTAL BLANKET ON REPORTING THIS CASE UNTIL FURTHER ORDER.
