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Caroline Orriss outside court |
‘Blood-curdling’ ordeal of woman terrorised by brutal burglary pair
Jailed: homeless couple who tied up and threatened to kill victim in her flat
CAROLINE Orriss bravely manages a smile but the “blood-curdling” ordeal she has been through is the stuff of nightmares.
This is a woman who found herself tied up in her flat as a homeless couple stole valuables and family heirlooms. She listened, gripped by sheer panic, as they discussed killing her.
After it was all over, the 26-year-old revealed she had considered diving out of a window at the flat in Frognal Court off Finchley Road in Swiss Cottage.
Ms Orriss said: “I moved away from there afterwards. I just wouldn’t have felt safe. I’m relieved it is all over but it was a terrifying experience.”
Originally from Yorkshire, she now lives in south London.
On Friday morning, Ms Orriss, a management consultant, was at Blackfriars Crown Court to see Michael Roe, 39, and Susan O’Brien, 33, sent to jail. She looked them in the face as it was revealed they had a list of similar convictions from lives chequered by drug abuse and alcohol addiction.
The court heard that Roe and O’Brien were in “dire straits” and Ms O’Brien had recently had a miscarriage. On the night they ended up in Ms Orriss’s flat last April, they had spent benefits money on a drinking binge and had been knocking at doors and listening by front windows to find an empty home to loot.
Once inside, Roe pulled Ms Orriss around by the hood of her sweatshirt before tying her up with computer flexes.
The necklace she was wearing was taken and, while she lay helpless, a ring was slipped off her finger. Stolen items included jewellery passed through generations of Ms Orriss’s family, bank cards, a laptop and clothes, including a fashionable Kill Bill-style yellow and black tracksuit. Her flatmates – three men, who were out at the time – also lost belongings.
Giles Curtis-Raleigh, prosecuting, told how Ms Orriss’s life was affected by the attack: “When she went out, she was looking at people on the Tube wondering if they were the people who did this.”
Roe and O’Brien were arrested when they were traced to a hotel. There was a new twist in the case when Roe wrote to a detective with a confession. He said in his letter: “I felt and do feel a failure to Sue.” The pair, who had come from the Republic of Ireland, are still in love, according to their lawyers.
During his lawyer’s mitigation, Roe asked his representative Cheryl Drew to sit down, telling the court: “I committed these crimes, enough is enough.”
Jonathan Simpson, appearing for O’Brien, said his client had been hooked on drugs and alcohol since the suicide death of her brother 10 years ago.
Judge John Hillen told the court that the threats to kill were “blood-curdling”.
He added: “The people of these islands, whether in the United Kingdom or in the Republic of Ireland, need protecting from people like you. Their homes should be sanctuaries.”
Roe, who pleaded guilty to robbery and burglary with violence, was given an open-ended sentence but told he would have to serve a minimum of four years. O’Brien, who denied the charges but was found guilty at trial, was jailed for nine years. |
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