JURORS took less than two hours to find a man guilty of robbing another at knifepoint.Christopher Bonner, 51, did not appear to flinch in the dock at Swindon Crown Court as the forewoman of the jury delivered the unanimous guilty verdict.He will be sentenced on a date to be fixed in the new year alongside his co-defendant in the robbery 47-year-old Kerrie Mclane.Granting Bonner, of Queens Drive, bail, Judge Jason Taylor QC said: “You’ve been convicted by the jury of what you must understand is a very serious offence. I will sentence you in due course along with Ms Mclane.”During the short three-day trial, jurors heard that the victim had gone to a house in Rosebery Street on March 13, 2019, to meet Mclane for sex.He’d met her earlier that day and had swapped numbers, later arranging to meet at the Broadgreen terraced home. The house was occupied by a vulnerable man and at the time subject to a partial court closure order, imposed over concerns that the occupant was being taken advantage of by drug dealers.CCTV from a neighbouring house captured Mclane waiting outside the property. Bonner, riding an orange mountain bike and wearing a khaki-green jacket, could be seen arriving at the house and being ushered in by the woman.A few minutes later, the victim went into the house having earlier parked up and gone around the corner to withdraw the £50 cash with which he planned to pay for sex.Giving evidence to jurors, the man said the entrance hallway was pitch-black. He followed Mclane upstairs. He had a sense that something wasn’t right and Mclane, perhaps sensing he was about to leave, shouted a warning. A tall black man, wearing a khaki jacket and with a black scarf over the bottom of his face appeared from behind a door and came for the victim with a knife.The robber pinned him against a wall with one hand and held the serrated knife in the other hand. He demanded: “Where’s the money?” The victim was punched to the head while his wallet and phone were stolen. He was told to get out and he left the house.The incident was reported to police at the time, although he later withdrew his support for the prosecution. He said: “I wanted to put it behind me.” He changed his mind a few weeks later.Bonner was arrested and, in interview, denied any involvement in the robbery. He claimed not to have been to the Rosebery Street address or have any association with Mclane.Put in the witness stand, the defendant acknowledged that was a lie. A heroin and crack addict at the time, he said he had gone to the house in Rosebery Street to score drugs. There had been three dealers in the house, all of whom were black. He had gone into a bathroom to take drugs and had then left.During the trial, it emerged that police had failed to conduct an identity parade despite both Bonner and the victim saying they would be happy to take part. When the defendant was arrested the video equipment that recorded the videos used in the ID parades was broken. DNA samples had not been taken from a knife at the scene. A man named by Bonner as an alibi witness was not spoken to – neither were other women, said to have been in the house at the time, quizzed by officers. Only CCTV from the immediate period surrounding the robbery was examined by police.Don Tait, for Bonner, described the Crown’s case as lamentable - labelling it a catalogue of failures.“You are invited to be sure on this evidence and, although you may be suspicious, the defendant doesn’t have to prove his innocence – the prosecution has to prove his guilty so you are sure,” he told jurors.“If this case had been investigated properly you might have been able to be sure, but as it hasn’t been these lamentable failures - this catalogue of failure - lead you to say to yourself whatever I might suspect I just cannot be sure.”In her closing speech, prosecutor Emily Heggadon pointed to the fact the defendant had lied in his interview. “The prosecution say he lied in that interview because he had something to hide and it wasn’t because he was buying drugs.”
A PAIR who robbed a man of his wallet and phone have been jailed for a total of 13 years.Sex worker Kerrie McLane and friend Christopher Bonner carried out the knifepoint robbery within seconds of the customer turning up at a house in Rosebery Street on March 13, 2019. He had earlier arranged to have sex with 48-year-old McLaneDuring Bonner’s trial last year, the victim said the masked attacker, who was wearing a khaki jacket and a black scarf covering the bottom of his face, shouted “where’s ya money?” His wallet and phone were stolen.On Monday, Judge Jason Taylor QC jailed McLane for five years and 10 months and sent Bonner, 51, down for seven years and two months.He said of the robbery: “On that occasion you both set up a robbery on an unsuspecting member of the public who had agreed to pay for sex, no doubt working on the basis he would be too embarrassed to report it.“It was clearly planned and you both bear equal responsibility. [McLane], you ensured Mr Bonner was inside the property waiting to ambush him. Once inside, Mr Bonner, you covered your face and came at him with a knife, punching him and asking for his [phone].“It may well have been short lived, indeed the victim was only inside the property for only two minutes, but that does not lessen the fear he would have experienced and the effects on him are set out in his victim personal statement.“They cannot and should not be minimised.”McLane was on bail when she carried out the robbery in March 2019. The previous year, on October 7, 2018, she held a kitchen knife with a six inch blade to the stomach of a male driver who’d picked her up in his car. She threatened him after an argument about her and a female friend injecting drugs in his vehicle.He received a minor injury in a struggle with the blade. His driver’s licence and bank card were stolen.Bonner was caught red-handed stealing from Westlea soft play area Kidz About in February 2020, while he was on bail and awaiting trial for the robbery allegation.The owner of the play area spotted Bonner on the business’s CCTV system, the court heard. He went down to the premises at the old Renault Building and also alerted the police. When officers arrived they found the thief with a burglar’s toolkit of gloves, pliers and a pair of scissors.McLane, who appeared in court via video link from women’s prison HMP Eastwood Park, read a letter to the judge in which she admitted there was no excuse for her behaviour. She had recently been diagnosed with a mental health condition and said she was now finally getting the right help and “starting to respect myself”.Bonner was said by the probation service to be a low risk of reoffending. Although he was given an eight year sentence for robbery in 1997 there had been significant gaps in his offending since then.McLane, of Curtis Street, admitted robbery, possession of a knife, actual bodily harm and theft. Bonner, of Station Road, was found guilty of robbery but admitted a non-dwelling burglary.
both jailedExternal Link/Members OnlyHidden Image/Members Only
Punter should also be jailed for attempting to pay her for sex
At least she has a smart AW verification photo ready for her release now. Every cloud.......
Wow they both look grim and dirty
