A violent robber who put a plastic bag over an 89-year-old Walsall woman’s head before she fell to the floor and fractured her hip outside her flat was today jailed for a minimum of almost five years.

Kenneth Edie, aged 36, twisted the bag when his victim screamed for help as she tried to hold on to her shopping.

He eventually fled with her goods, leaving his victim lying on the floor.

Edie, of Prince Street, Pleck, left his fingerprints on the bag he had used to attack the woman in Walsall on January 27. 

Three days later, he tried to rob a 70-year-old woman, charging at her as she entered her block of flats.

When she put the chain on the door, he forced it ajar and put his hand through – striking her face. Edie, who was jailed in 1994 for stabbing a man in the eye, fled but left his fingerprints on the door.

In a statement to Wolverhampton Crown Court today, Edie’s first victim said: “I no longer go out of my house and I think about the incident all the time.”

Edie, who was convicted of robbery and attempted robbery earlier this month, was given an indeterminate sentence – meaning he will only be released when he is no longer considered a danger. Judge Sybil Thomas said his 89-year-old victim would have been terrified when the bag was put over her head. Edie, who was said to be “sorry for what happened”, will serve at least four years and 349 days.