Robber who fatally kicked and punched pensioner jailed for 23 years

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A robber who fatally kicked, punched and stamped on a vulnerable pensioner before taking off with a box of cornflakes and a cottage pie has been sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 23 years.

Transcript

00:00After leaving a co-op store in Manor House, 87-year-old John Mackay was kicked, punched

00:12and stumped on by unemployed Peter Augustine over a box of cornflakes and a cottage pie.

00:20He died from the ordeal.

00:22Augustine did not attend his sentencing at the Old Bailey on Friday, claiming he had

00:28back pain. The judge said throughout the trial, the defendant had been disruptive, shouting

00:35angrily from the deck on a regular basis and was insulting, abusive and aggressive when

00:42challenged by the prosecution. The judge was at one point forced to take the rare step

00:49of excluding him from the courtroom as he gave evidence.

00:54John Mackay, originally from County Kilkenny in Ireland, had lived in London for around

01:0070 years. He was in the early stages of Alzheimer's.

01:08I think my personal view is relief, a lack of respect, but relief because he was so disruptive

01:12during the trial and the complete lack of respect he showed our uncle and us as a family today

01:19was just one of relief because he would have disrupted it so much it wouldn't have happened

01:23as it did. I don't think I would have got through my impact statement, yeah, with him shouting

01:28and carrying on. Which he would have done. Yeah, she definitely would have done, yeah.

01:33You know, we just, knowing he would probably never see the light of day again is the only

01:38consolation we have. To lose in such a wonderful uncle, he really was.

01:44Can I just, we might just step closer to the microphone. Can I just ask just about the

01:49impact on the family? He has siblings in the UK and Ireland. What has the impact been?

01:54Well, it's huge because his siblings are all in their eighties. Aunty Betty is in Australia,

02:00you know, and it's been very difficult for her to deal with this from so far away. And she

02:06was, of course, the last to speak to him. But she was very involved in his life because prior

02:11to his death, myself and Gary and Stephen and Aunty Betty and Uncle Bill and Gary's sister

02:19Katie, we were, all the family were trying to get a care package involved. I mean, he

02:23didn't need lots of care, but he needed a lot of support. I was needing a lot of support

02:27and we were getting, kind of getting that all together.

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