Burglar’s Facebook boasts over death castigated

A CROWN court judge yesterday castigated a teenage defendant for mocking his judgment in a Facebook posting.

Judge Neil Ford QC, the Recorder of Bristol, lambasted Liam Cunliffe, 18, for boasting on the social networking site about escaping a manslaughter charge over the death of 80-year-old Pauline Reddick.

Mrs Reddick died from a stroke just hours after he and Louis Corbett, also 18, ransacked her semi-detached home in Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol.

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Cunliffe, of Weston-super-Mare, bragged online minutes after the court ruling last month that they would not face charges relating to her death, writing: “Liam Cunliffe is a happy bunni. All i can say DROPPED!! YAA.

“I’m only lookin at six months. Haa. Bring it on. Easy!”

Sentencing Cunliffe and Corbett to 27 and 24 months respectively in young offenders’ institutions at Bristol Crown Court, Judge Ford ruled that there was not enough medical evidence to prove the “terror” of their raid had caused Mrs Reddick’s stroke and that they would be jailed for straightforward burglary.

But he told the court the comments, disclosed by the media, were an extra “dagger through the heart for the bereaved.

“I was surprised and saddened by the fact that this young man, knowing what had happened to Pauline Reddick, should consider what he thinks is his own good fortune far above the disastrous consequences to others,” he said.

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“One of these days it might be that Cunliffe will experience a personal loss in his life. When he does he might then get some understanding of what this lady’s family and neighbours in this case have experienced.

“It has caused the most understandable and extensive offence.”

Cunliffe and Corbett, from Weston-super-Mare at the time of the burglary but who since moved to Penzance, Cornwall, broke into Mrs Reddick’s home as part of a burglary spree on several houses.

They fled empty-handed after they were over-heard by their victim, who thought it was her daughter.

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Hours after the break-in in August last year, Mrs Reddick, who had a history of high blood pressure when stressed, died at Frenchay Hospital in Bristol.

Adam Vaitilingham QC, representing Cunliffe, said his client, who suffered from an attention deficit disorder, was “a different man when away from people he wants to impress”.

Andrew Langdon QC, representing Corbett, said his client had shown genuine remorse for his part in the burglary.

In a victim impact statement, Mrs Reddick’s son Andrew told how she had been married to their father John for 56 years, acting as his home carer until his death in 2008 from dementia.

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Of the defendants, he said: “We always held the hope that these men would recognise the harm and sadness they had caused by committing this crime and feeling some remorse. We firmly believe this hope is forlorn and they have shown no remorse or conscience for their actions.”

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