WINCHESTER - A teenage mugger who snatched a woman's handbag was jailed for life yesterday. Ragbhir Singh Digwa (19), slumped in the dock as Judge Martin Tucker told him he felt obliged to pass the sentence, "awesome and terrible as it might be".
Digwa was convicted at Winchester Crown Court of robbing the handbag containing £60, from 26 year old shop manageress, Ms Nichola Mann late at night. At the time he had just been released from a two year jail sentence for three robberies. He had committed 14 others in the past.
Judge Tucker, who described Digwa as a predator, told him. "The only appropriate course is that you be detained in a young offenders institution for life."
Unemployed Digwa, of Oakley Road, Shirley, Southampton, Hants, denied the robbery charge.
Tory MP, Lady Olga Maitland (Sutton and Cheam) said. "Society has to be protected. What that woman went through was terrifying, as it was for all the previous, victims too. The public at large will be grateful for this sentence.
Judge Tucker is renowned for his tough stance on law and order. Two months ago, he jailed a sex molester for 27 years one of the longest sentences handed out for offences which do not carry a life tariff.