Robber: ‘I’m going to stab you’
A robber held a cushion over an
83-year-old man’s face to stop him screaming as an associate raided his house – then threatened to stab him with garden secateurs.
‘‘I’m going to stab you, you bastard,’’ Maera Elizabeth Todd told the man during the August 13 robbery at his Christchurch home.
Todd, 39, and the other robber, Shantai Lawson, 38, have now both pleaded guilty to charges of robbing the Papanui couple aged
83 and 81, while armed with a weapon – the secateurs Todd picked up at the house. Lawson entered her plea in the Christchurch District Court yesterday.
Crown prosecutor Sean Mallett said Todd and Lawson went to the street in a car about 4pm and Todd knocked on the door of the house. When the man came to the door she asked about the address number, and then left.
She returned a minute later and continued asking about the address number, and then both women pushed past the man and into the house.
Lawson began opening drawers and searching for items to steal while Todd grabbed the man with both hands and pushed him to the floor. She pinned him down with her leg while Lawson took a silver watch from his pocket. Lawson yelled, ‘‘Where is the money?’’. The man replied he had none.
Todd then put a cushion over his face to stop him screaming. Todd then grabbed a pair of secateurs belonging to the victim, held them in front of his face and threatened to stab him.
The man tried to crawl away, but Todd pulled him back. The man’s wife then returned home. As she opened the front door, Todd shoved her with both hands causing her to fall from the top step and land on her back on the concrete path.
Both women then fled in the car, but were quickly stopped by police.
They had a cell phone taken in the robbery, the woman’s wallet, the silver watch, and a black bag containing other items belonging to the couple. Police found the stolen secateurs in Todd’s trouser pocket, Mallett said.
The man was emotionally traumatised and received a cut on his mouth.
The woman had a graze on her forehead and a sore lower back. Both needed medical attention. At the time, their son said his father ‘‘thought he was going to be killed’’ and the couple no longer wanted to be in their home.
‘‘They’re terrified of the same thing happening again . . . They’re not sleeping . . . This has been a life-changing experience for them.
‘‘My father planned to die in the house of natural causes, but the reality is now he’s not going to get to do his gardening anymore, not going to look after the plants and feed the birds like he used to do.’’
Judge David Saunders remanded Lawson in custody for sentencing on January 16.
Todd pleaded guilty in September and is due for sentencing tomorrow. She is also in custody.
Defence counsel Pip Hall QC said Lawson waived her right to a pre-sentence report in the hope of being sentenced more quickly, but the judge remanded her for a report to be prepared anyway.