Albany man mugged woman because he wanted to buy drugs to fit in with locals

A man has been jailed for mugging a 57-year-old woman from behind while she was on the phone to her daughter in Spencer Park, so he could buy drugs to “fit in with the locals”. The woman’s head “bounced off” the footpath behind the Spencer Park shopping centre in October after she was pushed in the back, State Prosecutor Sarah Jessup told the District Court of WA last week. Ms Jessup told the court that Justin Leigh Ryan, 42, approached the victim from behind on a bicycle after she arrived at the centre in a taxi, pushed her, then fled with a shopping bag which contained her purse and other personal items. The woman was taken to hospital, where she was treated for bruising to the back of her head and abrasions to her left arm and hand. “(Ryan) returned to his home which was nearby, realising there was no cash in the purse (and) told his partner what he had done,” Ms Jessup said. “His partner took the purse and returned it to the shopping centre.” In a recorded police interview the next day, on October 3, Ryan made a full confession to the attack, telling officers at the time he wanted to steal cash “so he could buy drugs and fit in with locals as he was not from around here”. Ryan’s defence counsel Georgia Herford told the court her client was under the influence of the drug speed at the time and had been diagnosed with schizophrenia. Ms Herford said her client was “genuinely remorseful” for the robbery, which he pleaded guilty to. He was sentenced to two years and 10 months jail by Judge John Staude. Before handing down his sentence, Judge Staude described the robbery as “unsophisticated and opportunistic”. “It would have been a very traumatic experience for the victim to be attacked from behind in that way,” he said. “She was much shorter and of lighter build than you and she was particularly vulnerable because, due to the long-term side effects of cancer treatment, she had a problem walking and keeping her balance.”