‘Sex employee’ and thugs barge into ‘sort’ man’s residence and drag him upstairs
A ‘sex worker’ and two hooded thugs barged into a man’s home in a brutal ordeal. Leoni Prince searched the man’s home for things to steal after her victim had been kicked and punched. Prince, 39, knew the man “in her role as a sex worker,” Teesside Crown Court heard.
Knowing the man lived alone, she turned up at his door with the two men at 9.30am on Sunday, April 19, reports Teesside Gazette. She rifled through a man’s pockets as he was held down by two men.
Prince engaged the victim in conversation, before the two men “barged into him” then “dragged their victim to the ground,” Nigel Soppitt, prosecuting said. “They kicked and punched him and demanded his bank card.”
The court heard that Prince went through the man’s pockets, before she went upstairs and started searching bedrooms. The man was dragged upstairs and back down again in the course of the attack, the court heard. He was pinned face down in his living room.
Mr Soppitt said that one of the men told him: “Stay there or we’ll kill you.”
The three left the house, which is in the Grove Hill area of Middlesbrough, with plastic bags full of goods. They got away with a number of items including £100 cash; the man’s bank card; two laptops; X-box consoles; and a Nintendo Wii.
Prince was later arrested; she had the victim’s bank card and jewellery on her. She later pleaded guilty to robbery.
Her barrister Dan Wilberforce told the court that his client had a “regrettable start to life”. Prince “started drinking at 13 and later used drugs as a coping mechanism,” he said. “The nature of the supplementary income meant that she was also subject to assaults and beatings. I can only describe the type of lifestyle experienced by the defendant – it was horrific.”
The defence barrister told the court that Prince said she didn’t know that the man would be violently attacked – and that she “thought she would be smoking crack” with the two hooded men she was with.
Judge Richard Bennett told Prince, who appeared in court on video link from HMP Low Newton: “In your pre-sentence report, you accept knowing the victim in your role as a sex worker. You indicate (to probation) that he was kind to you.
“You tell probation that you randomly came across two males – that is not a credible explanation. You say you did not see them assaulting the victim – that is clearly untrue.”
The judge said that Prince robbed the man “because he was vulnerable” and that she “knew he was no match for the physical might of the two males.”
Prince, of Crescent Road, Linthorpe, Middlesbrough, was jailed for five years and three months. She will serve half of her sentence before being released on licence. A restraining order was put in place prohibiting her from contacting her victim for the next 10 years.
Prince carried out a similar robbery in 2023. Alongside two men, she robbed someone in 2023. The victim was pinned up against a wall, while Prince and her accomplice stole his phone and wallet.
In 2020, she was banned from Linthorpe Village for 18 months, after repeatedly shoplifting and begging for money. Teesside Magistrates’ Court heard that she shouted at the manager of Greggs: “Can you p*** off so I can steal some sandwiches?”
The court heard that on one occasion, when she was stopped from entering Tescos, Prince lifted up her dress, exposing her underwear.
