{"id":30095,"date":"2025-11-28T09:32:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T14:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=30095"},"modified":"2025-11-28T09:39:26","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T14:39:26","slug":"robber-who-kicked-and-punched-pensioner-for-cottage-pie-jailed-for-his-murder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2025\/11\/28\/robber-who-kicked-and-punched-pensioner-for-cottage-pie-jailed-for-his-murder\/","title":{"rendered":"Robber who kicked and punched pensioner for cottage pie jailed for his murder"},"content":{"rendered":"

A robber who kicked and punched a pensioner before taking off with a box of cornflakes and a cottage pie has been sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 23 years.<\/p>\n

John Mackey, 87, was targeted by Peter Augustine after he visited a Co-op store in Manor House, north London, on 6 May.<\/p>\n

Augustine, 59, was convicted by jurors of murder and robbery following a trial at the Old Bailey earlier this month.<\/p>\n

He did not attend his sentencing on Friday, claiming he was suffering from back pain.<\/p>\n

Judge Sarah Whitehouse KC said Augustine attacked “gentle, innocent” Mr Mackey “for a box of cornflakes, a pint of milk and a saveloy sausage”.<\/p>\n

“I have no doubt that if this defendant was genuinely starving and had asked Mr Mackey for help, this kind, generous gentleman would have,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I have no doubt that the defendant targeted him specifically because he was frail – it was a cowardly act, the defendant has shown no remorse.”<\/p>\n

Passers-by saw Augustine attacking Mr Mackey and searching his jacket as he lay on the ground.<\/p>\n

A member of the public alerted police after she heard a shout of “give me the bag” and saw Mr Mackey lying motionless on the pavement.<\/p>\n

Mr Mackey, who was bleeding from his head, regained consciousness but was unable to tell officers what had happened.<\/p>\n

\"John<\/a>
John Mackey died in hospital two days after being attacked (Image: Met Police)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

He was treated in hospital for bleeding on the brain and broken ribs, but died from his injuries two days later.<\/p>\n

Augustine was arrested two days after the attack, after CCTV viewed by the Metropolitan Police showed him watching Mr Mackey buying food at a kebab shop.<\/p>\n

After attacking Mr Mackey, Augustine took his bag which contained a newspaper, cornflakes, cottage pie and his dinner of sausage and chips.<\/p>\n

While in custody after his arrest, Augustine showed no remorse – making a series of threats, acting violently and throwing hot coffee at an officer, police said.<\/p>\n

A search of the defendant’s room uncovered what was left of the pensioner’s groceries and wrapping from the cottage pie, and sausage and chips.<\/p>\n

Prosecutor Jane Bickerstaff KC previously told jurors Mr Mackey was 5ft 5in and weighed less than nine stone.<\/p>\n

“He would have been largely unable to put up any resistance to the attack due to his age and infirmity,” she said.<\/p>\n

The prosecutor said at the time Augustine was living in “reduced circumstances” and was effectively homeless.<\/p>\n

Mr Mackey’s niece, Patricia Schan, described her “perfect uncle” as “funny, charming, mysterious, and very definitely mischievous”, and went on to criticise Augustine’s behaviour during the trial.<\/p>\n

She said it “showed complete disdain, disrespect and disregard for the family throughout the trial and caused even further distress from what was already an extremely traumatic experience”.<\/p>\n

“His refusal to even attend during the trial caused anguish and uncertainty because we did not know what we would be facing on a daily basis,” she said.<\/p>\n

“He was constantly turning around and looking at us and shouting at us – and frankly terrifying us – from the witness box, which was just a few metres away.”<\/p>\n

Acting Detective Chief Inspector John Marriott, who led the investigation, said: “It is a shameful tragedy that John was killed by Augustine, for a mere few bits of shopping. He deserved better.”<\/p>\n

Source: \u00a0\"Sky<\/a> news.sky.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A robber who kicked and punched a pensioner before taking off with a box of cornflakes and a cottage pie has been sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 23 years. John Mackey, […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[7786,11888,2848,1529,1240],"class_list":{"0":"post-30095","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-uk","9":"tag-cctv","10":"tag-manor-house","11":"tag-metropolitan-police","12":"tag-north-london","13":"tag-old-bailey","14":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30095"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30100,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30095\/revisions\/30100"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}