A former chef turned street robber who scratched a man with a needle and offered him sexual contact in an alleyway has been jailed for three years. April Syrett, 35, admitted the robbery and breaching a suspended sentence at Teesside Crown Court.
The incident happened on May 28 as the victim cycled away from The Halt pub in Redcar. Syrett, accompanied by two others, first approached the man and asked to borrow his mobile phone. He declined and attempted to ride away.
Alleyway encounter and attack
Prosecuting barrister Shaun Dryden told the court that Syrett then "went down an alleyway and offered the victim sexual contact." The victim refused, thinking it might be a ruse to steal from him.
The group pursued him and confronted him again outside Wetherspoons. Syrett shoved the man from his bicycle, "pushed her fingers into the man's eyes," and "produced a hypodermic needle and scratched the man with it," Mr Dryden said. She made off with the man's phone, bank card and £160 in cash. The victim later underwent HIV and Hepatitis B testing.
Criminal history and sentencing
Just three weeks before the robbery, Syrett had left court with a suspended sentence for theft, assault and possession of a bladed article. She also holds convictions for battery and assaulting emergency workers.
In mitigation, barrister Cainan Lonsdale said the "confrontation was by chance, It wasn't a planned activity." Syrett had "given up" in the weeks and months before the robbery, her barrister said. "She says at that point in her life she was walking the streets with no shoes on. She didn't care if she lived or died. She believes she was having a manic episode."
Syrett, a trained chef, plans to relocate to the Aylesbury area to be closer to her family. She followed proceedings via video link from Low Newton prison.
Judge Richard Clews described the robbery as a "particularly unpleasant" incident. "I'm sure that you used, in a way, the presence of the other people to make it easier for you to get what you wanted from your hapless victim. He was knocked off his bicycle and you took his money. You scratched him with a hypodermic needle."
Reviewing Syrett's criminal record, the judge remarked: "It doesn't look like you've ever learned the lesson that whatever your difficulties, being dishonest or violent is not the answer."
The judge activated four months of the previous eight-month suspended sentence. Syrett, of Hanson Street in Redcar, was handed a total prison term of three years.
