A MAN who shoved an octogenarian to a church floor and later laughed about the robbery has been jailed for four years.

George Gale, 23, had faced a re-trial over the vicious theft of the woman’s wallet, after jurors in January could not reach a verdict.

But on the morning his second trial was due to begin, he pleaded guilty. Judge Jason Taylor QC sent him down for four years.

In January, Swindon Crown Court heard Phyllis Fry, 87, had been with friend L’Nora Olney clearing up after a thanksgiving service at St Bartholomew’s Church, Corsham, on November 2, 2018.

A stranger came into the church. The women thought he was there to pray and he stayed for around an hour while they tidied up the Grade I listed church.

Mrs Fry, a churchgoer for 50 years, told jurors her friend had left the building. She was grabbed from behind, causing her to fall to the floor. “I saw the man stood over me. He shouted and swore. I thought he was going to rape me so I screamed and he left,” she said.

Her friend, who had been waiting in her car outside the church, saw the robber come out and drive away on a moped.

Neither woman was able to identify Gale when presented with a series of images a fortnight later.

Homeless Gale had been staying temporarily at his aunt’s house on Queen’s Avenue, Corsham, at the time of the robbery.

He was arrested on November 3. The officers who arrested him claimed he had initially denied owning a moped that matched the description of the bike outside the church, but later said he had lost the keys. Those keys were retrieved from his cousin’s bedroom and handed to police by his aunt.

Four police officers spent 45 minutes searching the house. But they failed to find a white motorcycle helmet and torn black hooded top, which matched those worn by the robber and was found beneath an electrical circuit box outside the Queen’s Avenue home.

Gale’s cousin claimed he had given her a tatty wallet which he had bought for 10p from a charity shop and which she had kept in her bedside table. She said Gale had told her as they walked to shops that he had robbed a woman in a church, even laughing about the incident.

Following a court statement that appeared to implicate Gale’s male cousins, Gale’s aunt, Carol, and cousin Kieran were interviewed by police in October 2019. The aunt claimed Gale had confessed to the robbery a year before after he was released from custody. Kieran denied involvement in the robbery.

Gale claimed his aunt had subsequently called him and offered him money to take the rap. Prosecutor Mark Ashley described that as “absolute nonsense”. He told jurors: “If there was any truth in that whatsoever he would go straight to the police. All he is doing is trying to wriggle out from what I say is very clear evidence.”

Put in the witness stand Gale, of Kington Langley, said he had ridden the moped once but it belonged to his cousin. He denied confessing to committing the robbery to his cousin and aunt, telling jurors he had slept rough at the railway station after being released from police custody. He did not know who had robbed Mrs Fry.

Giles Nelson, defending, accused Gale’s aunt of lying to protect her sons, telling jurors that it was “weird” police had not found the helmet, hoodie or wallet in their search of the house. He pointed to the lack of forensic evidence linking his client to scene.

Gale’s criminal past includes convictions for carrying blades in Chippenham town centre. In 2016 he was given a suspended prison sentence and banned from keeping animals for five years after he admitted using an air rifle to shoot a chicken, which he also beat with a spade.