The person strangled the 95-year-old girl and shouted, “give me your cash”.
Edwin Morrison has been jailed (Picture: GMP)
A retired pharmacy courier who strangled and tied up a 95-year-old girl in an tried theft has been jailed for seven years. Edwin Morrison, 81, focused Mary Morgan at her residence in Little Hulton, Salford, Higher Manchester, as he remembered she used to tip him the “princely sum” of £2 when he dropped off medicine in his former job. He strangled Ms Morgan and shouted, “give me your cash”, then certain her arms along with cable ties.
She pleaded with him to let her go as she mentioned she couldn’t breathe, however Morrison instructed her to “shut up”. Morrison left the property empty-handed on January 27 after the girl’s cell hairdresser arrived, Manchester Crown Courtroom heard. He held his arms up as if he was going to seize the throat of the hairdresser, the courtroom was instructed, earlier than she ran away and he left the home.
Sentencing on Wednesday, Decide Peter Horgan instructed Morrison: “Your involvement on this severe offence beggars perception however that might be of no consolation to your victims. You had recognized a weak, frail, aged girl who you believed you possibly can simply take cash from. It’s unclear what truly motivated you to commit this crime.”
Final month, Morrison’s barrister, Nick Clarke, mentioned his consumer wished money as a result of he didn’t need his household to face the monetary burden of paying for his funeral.
Morrison was identified with incurable kidney most cancers in the summertime of 2024, and instructed he would in all probability have lower than two years to reside.
On New Yr’s Day, he arrange a web-based GoFundMe enchantment titled “Assist to bury me” as he outlined his well being issues.
He wrote: “Kind of been instructed to go in a nook and see my outing. I’ve no cash to cowl funeral prices and different incidentals.”
Nevertheless, the courtroom heard on Wednesday that the funeral preparations had already been paid in August 2024 by Morrison.
Mr Clarke mentioned that it was an “error” in mitigation quite than an intention by Morrison to deceive the courtroom and maintained his consumer’s actions had been “altruistic”.
He mentioned: “It has all the time been the case that he supposed the cash for his accomplice. It was not cash that was ever supposed for him or to repay money owed he had introduced upon himself.”
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Prosecutors mentioned Morrison was often playing at his native bookmaker’s within the months earlier than the assault however didn’t go to the Betfred store on that day.
He was additionally mentioned to have expressed “considerations” about funding a brand new kitchen on the residence the place he lived together with his then long-term accomplice.
Morrison, of Manchester Street, Worsley, Higher Manchester – who retired seven years in the past – pleaded responsible to tried theft at an earlier listening to.
Decide Horgan disagreed that Morrison’s actions had been altruistic, saying: “Your motivation to behave on this approach was completely self-centred and with out thought for the affect on anyone else.” He added it was “very probably” Morrison would die in custody.
After sentencing, Detective Inspector Paul Davies, of Higher Mancheser Police, mentioned: “It was a terrifying ordeal for the sufferer and Morrison’s actions of focusing on a lady in her own residence had been surprising.
“Her resilience and energy following this vile crime have been actually inspirational and I’m glad that the investigative group have been in a position to get her the justice she deserves.
“I additionally need to commend the courageous actions of her hairdresser who arrived because the crime was occurring. She prevented Morrison from doing something additional, obtained him out of the lounge and known as 999 immediately.”
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Rob Lancaster, of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), mentioned: “I hope the truth that Morrison has been prosecuted inside three months of committing this appalling offence reassures the sufferer, and wider neighborhood, that the CPS takes these kind of instances extraordinarily significantly.
“The energy of the prosecution case, together with forensic proof and CCTV from the encircling properties, meant Morrison had little choice however to confess his guilt on the first listening to.”
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