"Cowardly" Sheffield thug robbed disabled man at “gunpoint”

Andrew Cunningham asked his one-legged victim for a cigarette outside Poundland, on Ridgeway Road, at 4pm, on November 24, last year, said prosecutor Mark McKone.

He produced something in a plastic bag and pointed it at his face, telling him: "I have got a gun. I want your money."

He grabbed the man's strap bag and pulled him from the wheelchair, dragging him a few feet as the victim screamed and shouted for help.

Cunningham made off with the bag, which contained house keys, £100 cash, a mobile phone and bank cards, leaving the man traumatised and suffering with chest pains.

In a statement, the man said he now feels “very vulnerable and keeps thinking that anyone could come up behind him and attack him.”

"I don't want anyone else to feel crushed like I do," he said.

Sheffield Crown Court heard that Cunningham also jumped out of a vehicle on Meadow Street, on October 29, last year.

He chased after a woman and punched her in the back of the head, before attempting to snatch her handbag but failed when she fell over on it. When her boyfriend ran over to assist, Cunningham warned the couple: "I am coming to your flat. I am coming to Gleadless, You're f*****."

Mr McKone said Cunningham has 26 previous convictions, including possession of offensive weapons in 2017 and 2018, and assault occasioning actual bodily harm in 2019.

Barrister Tim Gaubert said Cunningham, who has learning difficulties, “endured a desperate upbringing” which led to "mental health issues throughout his young life."

He stole to fund his addiction to spice, Mr Gaubert added.

Cunningham, 21, of Eastern Avenue, Sheffield, pleaded guilty to robbery, common assault and attempted theft.

Sentencing him to eight and half years, Judge David Dixon told him he committed an "utterly cowardly, hideous crime."

He said: “You must feel incredibly proud of yourself. You ran away like the coward you are. You ruined his quality of life. What you do with the rest of your life is up to you. But behaving in a cowardly pathetic way is the lowest of the low. You should be ashamed of yourself.”

Read the latest cases from Sheffield Crown Court here.

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