Man jailed after hammer attack in Dudley street on pregnant mother

Only minutes earlier Andrew Bate had attempted to snatch an elderly woman's handbag but she bravely fought back before a passer-by came to her aid.

Judge Amjad Niwaz told the 49-year-old from Dudley that he posed a 'real risk' of causing significant harm to the public and even taking someone's life.

The young mother, who was left bleeding on the pavement, suffered a fractured skull in the attack, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.

Bate made his move just 18 days following his release from prison for robbery, after he had quit the hostel in Birmingham where he was required to stay on licence to see his family in Dudley, said Mr Charles Crinion, prosecuting.

Bate followed Nigen Parveen as she left the One Stop Shop on Buffery Road, Dudley, on October 16 last year(2016) at around 11am.

The 37-year-old, who was almost five months pregnant, became anxious as she wheeled her sick one-year-old child along the road in a pushchair, turning into School Drive to shorten her journey home. But Bate moved in front of her, taking a claw hammer form a rucksack as he demanded money.

Seeing him raise the hammer above his head, she shouted fearfully: 'My baby! I'm pregnant' and said she would give him money.

But as she leaned down to get her bag, Bate hit Mrs Parveen on the head with the hammer, causing her to black out, and grabbed the baby-change bag.

Several motorists stopped to help the stricken mother. One of them, Sarah Skelding, whose three children were in the car, challenged Bate and was herself threatened with the claw hammer.

A taxi driver who also stopped told police Bate had looked through the stolen bag and said: 'It's only old stuff, I need drugs.'

Two residents followed him as he tried to flee the scene before the police arrived and he was arrested.

Just 10 minutes earlier, Bate had tried to rob 74-year-old Janet Darby in High Street but she hung on to her bag and tried to push him away. She, too, was helped by a passer-by who grabbed Bate around the throat and pushed him against a wall.

Later Mrs Darby declined to give a victim impact statement, saying only 'I'm angry.'

In her statement, Mrs Parveen said she was too scared to leave her home anymore, even to take her young son to school.

Mr Nicholas Berry, defending Bate, who has a catalogue of previous convictions including robbery, rape, burglary and buggery, said the defendant had a chronic drug addiction after falling into a spiral of self-destruction from the age of 13 and had been sexually abused for four years by a care worker who was subsequently jailed. "It was a toxic concoction," said Mr Berry.

Bate, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to grievous bodily harm, robbery, attempted robbery, possessing an offensive weapon and failing to comply with sex offenders' requirements.

Passing a discretionary life sentence, Judge Niwaz said: "You pose a real risk of repeating these serious offences and even of taking someone's life."