Heroin addict denies robbery minutes after leaving custody

Jan 16 2009 The Journal

A HEROIN addict accused of mugging a frail elderly widow less than 20 minutes after being released from custody told a jury he had played no part in the attack.

Steve Briggs is alleged to have robbed 73-year-old Mary Wilson after he was freed from holding cells at North Tyneside Magistrates Court in North Shields.

The unemployed bricklayer admitted at Newcastle Crown Court he had been “rattling” with heroin withdrawal symptoms on his release.

But he denied a prosecution claim he had been so “desperate” for a fix, he had targeted Mrs Wilson and grabbed her handbag, saying he “would never stoop so low”.

Instead Briggs said that after leaving the court building, he set off to the home of an addict friend looking for heroin.

And when he found the property boarded up, he claimed he returned to a flat where he was staying at the time in the hope drugs were available there.

Briggs, who had been held in the cells overnight for failing to attend court for breaching a community order, said it was while at the flat police had come to the door.

He told the jury he had hidden in the loft because he feared he would be re-arrested and held in custody over the weekend.

The court earlier heard how Mrs Wilson’s purse containing cash was found stuffed down the back of a sofa at the flat along with the jacket he had been wearing. Mrs Wilson’s handbag was retrieved from a bin in a nearby alley.

Mrs Wilson, now 74, was left with swollen and cut knees, a cut hand and severe shock after the mugging.

Briggs, 37, of Marina View, Wallsend, denies robbery in September last year in Trinity Street, North Shields. The jury is expected to retire today.