Teenage looter who stole TV is unmasked

This is the teenage girl who was locked up for stealing a television from a shop during the riots in Wolverhampton.

For the first time the Express & Star is able to publish a photograph of Annabel Heys, who recieved a 10-month sentence after the disorder in the city centre in August.

It comes after Heys, who has served two months of her sentence, failed to get it reduced last week and lost the right to keep her identity a secret.

Heys was 17 when she was convicted of burglary and therefore could not be identified in the press. But she can now been named because court restrictions to protect her identity no longer apply as she is 18.

She asked a judge to reduce the sentence, saying it had been a "horrible experience", but Judge John Warner said her appeal had "no merit at all" during a hearing at Wolverhampton Crown Court.

Heys walked out of Sunitek.com in Broad Street, Wolverhampton, with the £500 TV and was caught the next day in A&E at New Cross Hospital being treated for cuts caused by broken glass.

The business faced £60,000 in losses after the riots and the owners have since struggled to make ends meet.

Chief Insp Mark Payne said today: "We continue to have large numbers of officers invested in ongoing investigations. Further arrest phases took place last month and people have been charged and remanded in custody.

"Anyone involved in the riots can expect a knock at the door at any time."

He said the rioters caused "chaos" in the city centre and "much fear" among the people in Wolverhampton.

During her appeal, Heys, an A-level student at Wolverhampton College, claimed she had not intended to get involved in the riots.

But as the disorder broke out, she became "drawn in" as no buses were running for her to get home.

Heys, of Holloway Drive, Wombourne, said she was pushed into the shop and then carried the TV a few yards before leaving it with a friend.