LOOK AT YOUR HANDIWORK; Judge forces attacker to view horror photos.
A judge ordered brutal Leslie Salter to look at these sickening pictures of two frail old ladies he beat to a pulp.Then Mr Justice Tucker gave FOUR life sentences to the coward who used an iron bar to batter his defenceless victims.
Salter, 31, left 86-year-old Enid Poole and Mair Lougher, 90, for dead when he raided their neighbouring flats. The judge said the police pictures of the blood-covered pair were "indescribable" - and got court officials to show copies to Salter.
He told the monster: "You should see the photographs of the horrific injuries you have inflicted."
Salter glanced at the pictures before turning his eyes away and looking down at the floor of the dock at Cardiff Crown Court.
Charity worker Mrs Poole and former headmistress Miss Lougher were attacked during a 12-month campaign of terror as Salter tricked his way into the homes of the elderly and vulnerable.
He escaped with just a set of keys and a cashcard after ransacking their flats at Barry, Glamorgan.
Relatives found Mrs Poole lying face down on the floor. Her false teeth had been smashed and her face was a mass of cuts and bruises.
Mrs Poole, given an award for charity work, is now a "shell of her former self," the prosecutor said.
She has lost her independent life-style and is bedridden in a nursing home where she constantly asks staff: "Will he be able to get me here?"
Seven-stone Miss Lougher, vice president of the local townswomen's guild, put up a brave fight, but suffered a fractured cheek and jaw.
Painter and decorator Salter, from Splott, Cardiff, was trapped after an appeal on BBC TV's Crimewatch programme.
He admitted 18 offences and was given four life sentences for the robberies and attacks.
Salter's barrister David Wyn Morgan, said: "These were terrible offences which he will have to live with for the rest of his life.
"He has no explanation of the outburst of violence. His pleas of guilty were an expression of his remorse."
Detective Chief Inspector Stuart Lewis said later that Salter could have killed if he had not been caught.
"He deliberately selected vulnerable elderly people who could offer little resistance," he said after the case. "He was getting more and more violent and ruthless."
Mrs Poole's grandson, Graham Mudford, said: "We are pleased this monster has been put away for a long long time."
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| Author: | Young, Sydney |
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| Publication: | The Mirror (London, England) |
| Date: | Nov 9, 1996 |
| Words: | 399 |
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