An Inverness pensioner who was mugged and struck with a metal pole said she forgives her 22-year-old attacker and hopes she can be rehabilitated in jail.
Lena Clarke, 79, was left covered in blood as she had her handbag stolen on a walk home from church in a quiet residential street in the city.
Young mother Mollie Robinson, 22, was jailed for three years earlier this week after a sheriff told Inverness Sheriff Court that she “deliberately targeted” her victim to “satisfy her need for drugs.”
And yesterday her victim, Ms Clarke, who needed three staples for her wound, said: “I am happy with the sentence, yes, but as long as it does her some good.
“I do forgive her. I hope that someone can do something for her and rehabilitate her. Hopefully someone can get her to change her ways.
“I do feel sorry for her, because usually at the age of 22 you should be happy as a person.”
Robinson had followed her target before striking at about 9.45pm on January 25, as Ms Clarke walked home from a Kirk session at Crown Church.
CCTV and several witnesses saw Robinson’s brutal and callous attack in Telford Avenue, and she was arrested within minutes.
Fiscal Roderick Urquhart told the court that Ms Clarke had recalled hearing footsteps behind her before she “felt a sharp blow to the top of her head with a weapon.”
He added that the victim let out a scream and felt the handbag she was clutching in her hand torn from her grasp as she fell to the ground.
Robinson later told police: “I’ve done something really bad.”
Yesterday, Detective Sergeant Steven MacKenzie said: “I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to the victim following her terrifying ordeal, and to the members of the public in their invaluable support of investigations which greatly assisted in speedily identifying the person responsible.
“I hope that this conviction and sentence will send out a clear message that Police Scotland will robustly investigate all violent crimes, helping to ensure we keep people safe and perpetrators brought to justice.”
