One of two teenagers accused of violently robbing a 75-year-old woman of her handbag in Warrawong has pleaded guilty in court.
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The teens, aged 14 and 15 at the time of the attack, cannot be identified by law, however the Mercury can reveal both have lengthy juvenile records.
The pair faced Wollongong District court last week where the older of the two entered a plea of guilty to a single charge of aggravated robbery with wounding.
The younger boy maintains his innocence and is expected to stand trial later this year.
Court documents reveal the victim had finished grocery shopping at Westfield Warrawong and was returning to her car just before 11.30am on October 13 last year when the teens began following her.
She was just metres from her vehicle, parked on the rooftop carpark, when one of the teens grabbed her handbag and tried to pull it away.
The woman kept hold of the bag, causing her to fall and the trolley she was pushing to fall to the ground as the teen yanked at the bag.
The woman was dragged a short distance along the concrete before she eventually let go of the bag.
The teens ran off. They were pursued by witnesses, however escaped along Northcliffe Drive.
The victim later told police she had $2000 cash in her bag to pay bills. She had bruising and grazes to her knees and a strained shoulder, which later required surgery after it was revealed she’d suffered a full thickness tear in one of the tendons.
Police labelled the attack “targeted”, claiming CCTV footage shows both teens appeared to “single out” the victim by stopping at the shopping centre entry and turning around to follow her towards her car.
“This was a violent and unprovoked and committed on a vulnerable woman,” officers wrote in documents tendered in court.
“She was targeted from behind by the two males and was easily overpowered.”
The older teen was arrested later that day in an unrelated incident in a carpark in Warrawong.
During the arrest, he spat on one of the police officers and called him a “dog c—t”.
He will be sentenced at a later date.