‘Parasite’ addict jailed for killing pensioner in botched bag theft

Nellie Geraghty, 79, was found face down in the mud just 100 yards from her home in Shaw, near Oldham, Greater Manchester, as she died in a “most violent attack” on her way to her local luncheon club.

The Recorder of Manchester, Judge Andrew Gilbart QC, told Mark Royle he had “snuffed out her life just to get the price of your next fix or two” in an opportunistic robbery that went wrong.

Her husband, Frank, had died some years ago and she was so devoted to him she had taken to carrying some of his ashes in her bag whenever she went out, a jury at Manchester Crown Court heard.

She also tended to carry amounts of cash up to £200 in her bag at any given time.

Royle, 37, of no fixed address, pounced as she walked along a passageway shortly before midday on November 24 last year.

Sentencing him to life, Judge Gilbart said: “She made a ready victim of a bag snatch. She was just four feet 10 inches tall and 79 years old.

“She was carrying her shoulder bag. I am sure you thought it contained money or other things worth stealing. As you tried to get it she clung to it, which is not surprising for she carried within it among other things the ashes of her late husband whose memory sill burned vividly for her.”

Giving evidence, Royle said he was not the mugger in question, and denied murder or robbery, but the jury rejected his argument.

She suffered a number of head injuries and the jury heard evidence that it was an “overwhelming likelihood” she was knocked to the ground by Royle and while lying on the floor was kicked or stamped on, but the judge said that could not be said with certainty.