A Carlisle man who tried to rob two different women as they sat alone in stationary cars in the city centre has been handed a four-year prison sentence.
Stuart Sanderson, 58, opened a passenger door and entered his first victim’s vehicle, in the Halston Hotel car park off Warwick Road, at around 3.30pm on June 4.
Carlisle Crown Court heard the woman recalled Sanderson covering his lower face with a top, while ordering her not to speak.
He looked forward before saying something along the lines of “don’t say anything, you’re coming with me”; to which she replied “I am not”.
The woman grabbed her keys, left the vehicle despite Sanderson trying to grab hold of her and alerted a bystander.
Minutes later, Sanderson tried to push his way into a second lone woman’s vehicle, which was stopped at traffic lights on Botchergate, appearing to grab the car keys.
Sanderson attempted to sit in the driver’s seat on top of the woman, who screamed for help as she tried to fight him off.
She retrieved her phone and keys after Sanderson grabbed them. Bystanders came to help the shocked woman, who described being frozen.
Police located Sanderson nearby. He was handcuffed, searched and found in possession of a broken glass bottle neck.
Initially charged with trying to kidnap the two women, he admitted two alternative counts of attempted robbery; and offensive weapon possession.
Both women addressed Sanderson — who appeared remotely over a video link — directly as they read impact statements during his sentencing hearing.
“You have left me feeling extremely vulnerable which is something that I resent,” she said. “You do not have the right to destroy a woman’s life like this but you tried to on that day.”
The second woman had told police: “I held on to the handbrake to stop him…because I thought if he managed to drive off with me in the car he was going to kill me.”
She said to Sanderson: “This is going to affect me for the rest of my life. You had no right to approach me and come into my personal space. You can get any sentence, but this will be a life sentence for me.”
Sanderson, formerly employed as a Botchergate bouncer, factory worker and delivery driver, was in the throes of a mental health crisis after leaving hospital shortly before the incidents.
He was intending to take a car and end his life after losing his job, relationship, home and physical health.
The offences were the worst acts of a life led, for the most part, relatively well, said defence lawyer Andrew Evans, who added: “He wants to apologise to everybody here.”
Passing sentence, Recorder David O’Mahony said: “There are a number of aspects of this case which are tragic.”
Of the adverse effect on the women, the judge remarked: “In both cases the effect has been significant.”
Concluding that Sanderson should be classed as dangerous offender, the judge ordered that he should serve at least two-thirds of the jail term and an additional two-year licence period.
