CROCKY; 101-year-old boxer who tackled thief says: If I was a few years younger, I'd have massacred his face.Byline: TOM PETTIFOR A JUNKIE who stole from war hero Kazimierz Michalski got more than he bargained for when the former boxer overpowered him - despite being 101. Sprightly Kazimierz saw red when he spotted cowardly Stephen Gillespie, 47, swiping pounds 300 from his wallet after the crook promised to fix his roof. The former Polish soldier gripped him in a bear hug before terrified ter·ri·fy tr.v. ter·ri·fied, ter·ri·fy·ing, ter·ri·fies 1. To fill with terror; make deeply afraid. See Synonyms at frighten. 2. To menace or threaten; intimidate. Gillespie wormed free and fled. After he was jailed for three years yesterday, Kazimierz ridiculed him as "a weakling" and said the thief had been lucky to escape a proper beating. He said: "I used to be a boxer and wish I was few years younger and quicker, then things would have been very different. "I would have massacred his face. He was physically much weaker than me. I am angry." The pensioner told how he left Gillespie gasping for breath. He said: "I put my arms around him. "His eyes were wide, his face was red and he was short of breath. I didn't want to suffocate suf·fo·cate v. 1. To impair the respiration of; asphyxiate. 2. To suffer from lack of oxygen; to be unable to breathe. suf him. "He was a weakling in comparison to me. I could box him and do anything I wanted to him. I struggled with him. "I shouted, 'Stop!' and 'Give back my wallet', but he defended himself. "After grappling with him and putting him in a bear hug, I eventually let go. "I couldn't chase after him because I am 101. I am not as quick and decisive these days but I was much stronger physically than him." Kazimierz, a former chief librarian of Oxford's Bodleian Library said of the sentence: "I hope this is a lesson to him and a warning to others. He is a pickpocket PICKPOCKET. A thief; one who in a crowd or. in other places, steals from the pockets or person of another without putting him in fear. This is generally punished as simple larceny. and a weakling." Kazimierz , who survived the horrific Russian Gulag Gulag, system of forced-labor prison camps in the USSR, from the Russian acronym [GULag] for the Main Directorate of Corrective Labor Camps, a department of the Soviet secret police (originally the Cheka; subsequently the GPU, OGPU, NKVD, MVD, and finally the KGB). prison system, suffered cuts to his cheek and chin in March's struggle. But recorder Mark Ockelton told the drug addict: "You had bitten off more than you could chew, because when he realised what happened he got hold of you and immobilised you for a while." FINGERPRINTS Gillespie was on early release from a burglary jail term when he befriended the pensioner at a church service in St Giles, Oxon. He had a string of convictions that also included theft, knifepoint knife·point n. The sharp end of a knife. Idiom: at knifepoint Under threat of being stabbed or cut with a knife: was mugged at knifepoint. robbery and drug dealing. After making off with Kazimierz's cash he blew the lot on drugs. Gillespie, of nearby Wolvercote, was arrested two weeks later after being traced by his fingerprints. He admitted theft. His lawyer Jennifer Edwards told the Oxford crown court hearing he admitted he had been hooked on crack and heroin, but claimed he was now clean. CAPTION(S): COWARD Junkie Gillespie managed to flee after pensioner overpowered him AGE OF DEFIANCE Kazimierz says thief escaped good hiding DASHING HERO Kazimierz as a young serviceman |
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