Young thugs hellbent on drink and drugs lifestyle raided newlywed’s home as they slept in
Young thugs raided the home of a newlywed couple as they slept, making off with wedding presents and other valuables worth £20,000.
Connor Turner, 20, and Tyler Robinson, 19, were on police bail at the time, nearing the end of an often violent four-month campaign of robberies and other crime which left a trail of devastation.
The pair, who it’s said had resisted attempts to steer them clear of a ‘lifestyle’ of drink and drugs, have now been jailed.
After tying the knot at a ceremony in Yorkshire, the newlywed couple spent the day celebrating their nuptials with friends in Huddersfield before returning to their home on Mottram Road in Stalybridge on Saturday night August 31, 2019.
The pair went to bed, leaving friends to continue to celebrate downstairs, but while they slept burglars broke into their home through a first floor bathroom window, prosecutor Adrian Farrow told Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court.
The thieves helped themselves to valuables from holdalls in the living room which had remained unpacked from their wedding.
They swiped items worth £5,000 including a £2,500 Cartier watch which had been a 21st birthday present, jewellery worth £500, a £1,600 Apple Macbook computer and a guest’s weekend bag containing clothes, toiletries, perfumes, driving licence and bank card.
House CCTV captured the raiders loading the goods into the couple’s Kia Sportage in the drive before fleeing the scene.
Other footage uncovered by police showed the two burglars using bank cards they had just stolen to buy fuel, booze, cigarettes and a McDonald’s meal in Denton before 6am that day.
The £15,000 Kia Sportage was found damaged and on false plates three months later.
In a victim impact statement read to the court, the groom said the loss was ‘not simply financial’.
He said some of the stolen items were wedding gifts and the burglary had ‘spoiled’ the start of married life. He went on that he now felt nervous about the leaving the house or going to bed.
His bride, who the court heard was already suffering from an anxiety disorder, said the raid was an ‘unwanted memory’ of their wedding day.
“This is not what we want as a lasting memory of a special milestone in our lives,” she said.
It emerged the two burglars had been arrested the month before and were on police bail at the time they attacked the newlyweds’ home.
Their shocking spree, encompassing 26 offences including robbery, burglary and fraud, had started as early as April, 2019, and concluded on September 29, 2019, said Mr Farrow. Robinson joined the spree in June.
Turner, with a second unidentified person, pounced on a boy of 14 outside Marple Hall School in Marple on May 20 last year, grabbing the youth and telling him ‘let go of your bike or I will smash your head in’. He took the bike, worth £1,145.
Turner, again with a second person, burgled a house on Clarkson Drive in Denton at 4am on May 25 last year, waking the owner who was told ‘shut the f*** up’ when he challenged the pair for smashing their way into his detached garage.
Turner and Robinson were identified as the robbers responsible for a knife-point mugging of a cyclist on Overhill Road near New Mills on June 27 last year.
The cyclist crashed into long grass after being shoved from his bike and was approached by three males, including the defendants.
One of the trio punched and kicked him while Turner, who had a knife, shouted at the cyclist to let go of the bike.
One of the three rode off on the custom-built bike worth £2,500 while Turner and Robinson fled in a Ford Focus. The cyclist activated his ‘go-pro’ camera and captured the last part of the incident, and threw a brick at the car as it sped away, striking the driver.
They struck again a few minutes later, breaking into property on Hall Drive in Mottram and grabbing a TV, a Breitling watch and jewellery worth £6,200. They ran away while a third accomplice drove away in the Ford Focus seen earlier.
Police discovered that the Ford Focus had been stolen hours earlier during a burglary in Birchvale Drive in Romiley and was later torched.
The defendants burgled another house on Fields Farm Road in Hatterley around midnight on July 23 last year while the occupants slept, ransacking the home before taking an X-Box games console, headphones, a bottle of whisky, cash and drill worth £550.
CCTV captured the pair in a £4,000 VW Tiguan at a petrol station – the car had been stolen during a burglary at a home on Moss Lane, Mossley on August 1 last year. The pair drove off from the Shell petrol station without paying. The Tiguan was recovered later but had been torched.
During another burglary at a house on Ravenstones Drive in Diggle on August 23 last year, they woke a boy of 14 who told his parents. The father opened a door to let his dog out and the pair fled. The dad gave chase and managed to grab Turner who told an accomplice ‘stab him’. He let go and the defendants fled with £16 cash taken from the kitchen.
The pair robbed an Audi from a driveway at Outram Mews in Uppermill. Turner confronted her and shouted ‘ give me the f***ing car keys’ and shoved her to the floor when she answered ‘f*** off’ and turned to get back in the house.
Turner grabbed they keys and then shoved a second man, described as retired, to the ground after he had responded to the screams of the carer. The burglar sped off in the £22,000 Audi A2, unconcerned at being told it was fitted with a tracker. It was found later.
Adam Watkins, defending Turner, pointed out his client had offended ‘over a very short period of time’ and ‘sought to behave in a way that might fit in with others’.
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He pointed out his client any had not committed any of his crimes alone and and had thought it would get him ‘some kind of misguided status’.
Anna Chestnutt, defending Robinson, said her client would offer to say sorry to his victims if he was with them and offer to repay them.
He was ‘genuinely sorry’, she said.
The court heard the both defendants, who had no previous convictions, had resisted attempts from family and professionals to steer them away from a ‘lifestyle’ of crime involving drink and drugs.
Sentencing them, Judge John Potter described the attack on the newlyweds’ home as ‘particularly mean’.
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He told the defendants: “Your offending was characterised by you invading people’s homes, you making threats of or using force towards entirely innocent members of the public whom you targeted with a view to your own personal financial gain. You caused harm to a very significant number of people.”
He said that in April and June last year the two young men ‘decided to adopt a lifestyle which was entrenched in drug taking and alcohol’.
The judge went on: “This was grossly selfish behaviour which has caused harm to many others.”
Turner, of no fixed abode, was jailed for seven years and six months after he admitted eight burglaries and attempted burglaries, three robberies, aggravated vehicle taking, three offences of theft, making off without payment, handling stolen goods, four offences of fraud. He asked for four other burglaries to be taken into consideration.
Robinson, of Philip Way in Mottram, was jailed for six years after pleading guilty to four burglaries and attempted burglaries, robbery, aggravated vehicle taking, theft, handling stolen goods and four fraud charges.
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