A dying mother broke down in tears at the Old Bail

A dying mother broke down in tears at the Old Bailey on Friday
as her robber son was jailed for 10 years.

The woman, sitting in the public gallery supported by a friend,
had written a letter to Judge Michael Coombe explaining her terminal
illness and seeking mercy for her son.

‘Reading such a letter is one of the more painful aspects of
being a judge,’ the judge said.

‘It is painful to me that your mother will be one of the
greatest sufferers of what you have done,’ he told defendant
Clive Morton.

‘I feel very sorry for her.

I hope she accepts that.

‘
Morton, 26, admitted robbing five building societies at
gunpoint between September 4 and November 2, 1992.

He stole nearly pds stlng 20,000 from the Chelsea Building
Society and the Britannia Building Society, both in Central Road,
Worcester Park, Surrey, the Nationwide Building Society in Tolworth
Broadway, Surrey, and the Nationwide Building Society in London
Road, Morden, Surrey.

He robbed the Britannia Building Society twice.

During each raid tellers and customers were grabbed and
threatened with a bullet in the head unless cash was handed over.

Morton, of no fixed address in Kingston, was caught after
a high-speed car chase with police after the last robbery in Morden.

He admitted five charges of robbery and five charges of
having an immitation firearm with intent to rob.

The court heard that Morton was jailed for nine years in
1989 for a similar series of building society raids.

However, he was moved to a open prison farm within three
years because he had been a ‘model prisoner’, said Mr James
Scobie, defending.

During his fourth weekend leave in September, last year,
he learned of his mother’s illness and never returned to jail.

He resumed his former addiction to heroin and robbed the five
building societies to finance his habit.

In sentencing Morton to a total of 10 years, starting from
Friday, the judge said: ‘I have no doubt you terrorised a large
number of people.

‘I dare say that some of them will never forget that terror
for the rest of their lives.

‘
The court heard that police recovered only pds stlng 3671 of
the pds stlng 20,000 haul.

Some of the money was lost when excited children, chasing
Morton as he ran away from the last robbery, snatched lose notes that
had fallen out of his bag.

‘The children chased Morton – enjoying themselves,’ said
prosecutor Miss Wendy Joseph.

ENDS