Mugger is hunted down by villagers (From The Northern Echo)

Mugger is hunted down by villagers

8:11am Tuesday 25th August 2009

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A FRAIL pensioner last night thanked the have-a-go heroes who chased and captured a masked mugger who tried to rob her.

Sixty-five-year-old Shirley Ellis, who can only walk with the help of two sticks, said she could not believe it when friends and neighbours came to her aid.

Police last night praised the men who chased the mugger for miles before finding him hiding in a hedge.

Mrs Ellis was walking through St Albans Terrace, in Trimdon Grange, County Durham, at lunchtime on Sunday when her attacker emerged from the shadows.

He asked Mrs Ellis, who is treasurer of the village Workingmen’s Club, for the time, before grabbing her bag which contained nearly £1,000 of takings.

Mrs Ellis grappled with her attacker before the bag split.

The robbery was spotted by father-of-one Ian Wilkinson from his grandparents’ house in Northside Terrace.

He left his daughter with a relative before going to Mrs Ellis’ aid.

He followed the robber into Ropers Terrace and through the grounds of Trimdon Grange Infant and Nursery School, before losing him at the allotments on the village’s outskirts. The 30-year-old enlisted the help of his brother James Runciman, 28, allotment holder Shaun Duddin and other residents.

Mr Duddin had seen the robber making off through fields towards Trimdon Station, so the group set off in pursuit on foot and in cars.

At the end of a 20-minute chase they found him hiding in shrubbery between the two villages and restrained him until police arrived.

“He was shouting: ‘The bag’s back there, the money’s back there’, but it wasn’t,”

said Mr Wilkinson, of Sunnyside Terrace.

“It was in his pocket because we pulled a big wodge of it out.

“She was a helpless person, it could easily have been my granddad and I just focused on that and thought, ‘I’m not having this – I’m going to get you’. He could have had a knife with him, but I didn’t think about that.”

Acting inspector Graham Milne, of Trimdon police, said: “Without the public, this gentleman could have made good his escape.

“It is only by their bravery and selflessness that he was apprehended until we got there. We don’t want anyone to put themselves at risk unnecessarily, but we are very, very grateful.”

Mr Wilkinson, one of many on the scene, said: “I don’t want to be seen as a local hero, but I was brought up with good morals and I don’t want to see things like that happen in my community.

“I like to think I did what anyone else would do because if you let things like that happen, they’ll happen again.

“I have got to bring my daughter up around here and Mrs Ellis is a really nice person.”

Mrs Ellis, although left shaken by her ordeal, spoke yesterday of how thankful she was to those who helped.

“All the money just came flying out with the wind,” she said.

“I just came home, I couldn’t breathe I was in such shock.

“Everyone helped, they went out in their cars and everything. I’ve never known anything like it.

“They caught up with him before the police did, and they had helicopters out.”

■ A 19-year-old man from Trimdon Station appeared before South Durham Magistrates’ Court, in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, yesterday morning in connection with the incident.

Jak Daniel Parkinson, 19, from Main Road, was charged with robbery.

He entered no pleas to the offence, and his case was adjourned until September 10, when he will reappear at Durham Crown Court. He was released on conditional bail.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact police on 0345-60-60-365 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800-555-111.

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