Ashley Malcolm, 40, has been jailed for 18 years for the manslaughter of 86-year-old John Burke, who died after being headbutted during a burglary at his home in Hackney, east London. Mr Burke’s wife, Peggy, who also has dementia, was asleep upstairs at the time of the attack.
Attack on elderly couple
Judge Simon Mayo KC told Malcolm: ‘You entered the home of two elderly and vulnerable occupants. During the course of that burglary you headbutted Mr Burke. That headbutt fractured his nose and caused intercranial bleeding, and he died as a consequence.’
Mr Burke’s family described him as a ‘hard-working’ grandfather who was attacked as he ‘protected the woman he loved with everything he had left’. His son Sean, who found his father collapsed at home the day after the fatal assault, said: ‘Dad was a quiet, hard-working, easy-going man who never had a bad word for anyone and I never witnessed him have a cross word with anyone.’
Timeline of the burglary
Malcolm broke into the home in Fountayne Road shortly before midnight and spent an hour and a half inside before leaving with a wheeled shopping trolley. He returned at 2.45am, having left the contents of the trolley at another address, and spent another 20 minutes inside before leaving with a box under his arm.
Later that morning, a carer visited Mr Burke’s flat and noticed a broken window and a messy kitchen. Mr Burke told her: ‘Oh thanks you’re here. He attacked me. He beat me up last night around 11pm, a 6ft-tall man. He used to be one of the caretakers.’ He told paramedics he had been headbutted by two men but was too afraid to leave his bedroom to call 999 and had waited seven hours for the carer to arrive.
Medical failures and death
After tests at Homerton Hospital, Mr Burke was allowed home at 2.35pm. The court heard he was discharged after a locum radiologist failed to spot bleeding on the brain and a broken nose. The following morning, his son Sean found him unconscious on the floor of his bedroom, and tests confirmed he had sustained a ‘devastating and irreversible’ brain injury from which he died.
After burgling Mr Burke, Malcolm targeted a residential care home in Hackney at 6.25am and later tried to break into a couple’s flat in Stamford Hill with a screwdriver. He admitted burgling Mr Burke’s home of various items including food and medication, another burglary and attempted burglary.
Sentencing and background
Over the past 20 years, Malcolm had 12 more convictions for burglary and attempted burglary, and 10 assaults, including headbutting and biting part of the ear off a prison officer. In mitigation, defence barrister Emin Kandola referred to a statement in which Malcolm wrote: ‘I’m very sorry about what happened. It was an accident. I’m very sorry to the family.’
Judge Mayo noted the defendant’s addiction and mental health difficulties but said his ‘extensive’ history of domestic burglary was a ‘substantial aggravating factor’. Malcolm pleaded guilty to manslaughter and a string of other offences, and was jailed for 18 years with a further five years on extended licence.
