Robber targeted autistic man on Leeds bus

Ian Liversidge, 48, targeted the victim as they were travelling on a bus in Leeds on May 22 last year.

Leeds Crown Court heard the victim boarded the bus in the Harehills area of the city on his way home from playing bingo.

Liversidge followed him off the bus and attacked him on Kirkstall Mount, Bramley. Paul Nicholson, prosecuting, said Liversidge jumped on the victim and stole his mobile phone and his glasses before running off.

The victim suffered bruising after being knocked to the ground and has felt too afraid to go out alone since the attack.

Liversidge pleaded guilty to robbery and was jailed for two years, eight months.

Recorder Ray Singh said: “The impact upon him is perhaps far greater than someone who does not have that particular disability.” John Bachelor, mitigating, said Liversidge was sorry for what he had done. He said Liversidge was currently serving a prison and was in “no rush” to be released because he was receiving good treatment for a medical condition.

Liversidge, of Harehills Avenue, was given a three-year prison sentence a month after the incident for a car crime spree in which he injured a 90-year-old man, stole a taxi and terrified a mother as she was getting a baby out a car.

A judge who jailed him for those offences said he had one of the worst records for car crime he had ever seen.