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Jailed for life: Farhi mugger who netted £1m by preying on women
Paul Cheston, Courts Correspondent23.09.09
The serial mugger who attacked fashion designer Nicole Farhi in a campaign against women was jailed for life with a minimum of 14 years today.
Daniel Mykoo, 29, was sentenced for 84 robberies from which he netted £1 million. Television presenter Dani Behr was today revealed as another of his victims.
Mykoo strangled vulnerable women in wealthy suburbs such as Hampstead and Chelsea before taking their valuables. He often used his brother Matthew, 27, as an accomplice in a “strangler-robber” team. Matthew was sentenced to an indeterminate life term with a minimum of nine years.
Judge Nicholas Browne said the robberies were the “worst I have ever encountered”. He told Mykoo, a crack cocaine addict: “You are the most prolific violent robber to be sentenced in London in recent years.”
Mykoo punched Behr and robbed her of an £8,000 Cartier watch and Versace bag as she was getting out of her car. The former The Word presenter, who has dated footballer Ryan Giggs, was set upon by Mykoo days before she was due to travel to David and Victoria Beckham's wedding in 1999.
Mykoo approached her on a bike, before leaning into her BMW. He forced her down on to the seat and yelled “don't look at me, I've got a gun” before ripping the watch away.
Addressing the Mykoo brothers, the judge said: “You have committed strangulation robberies which are in a league of their own. Your offending pattern was ruthless, predatory and vicious. It is by sheer good fortune that you did not kill, permanently injure or maim any one of your many victims.” Mykoo has admitted 19 robberies, and yesterday asked for another 65 to be taken into account dating back 10 years. Two of these were on elderly women — one an 84-year-old whom he strangled and put his fingers down her throat.
Judge Browne continued: “Within seconds of the attack, the vast majority of your victims were rendered unconscious. You threatened to kill or maim many victims when they resisted.”
In some cases they threatened to cut fingers off if rings could not easily be removed. Mykoo, who showed no emotion as he was sentenced at Wood Green crown court, pleaded guilty to mugging Farhi. His brother was acquitted of that attack. Farhi, whose husband is playwright Sir David Hare, said she was strangled until she blacked out on the doorstep of her Hampstead home in April last year. Her £8,000 ring was stolen.
The Mykoo brother's victims robbed a judge's wife of a £30,000 ring on her doorstep. Victim BBC news reporter Sangita Myska, who was attacked outside her Belsize Park home, feared she was going to be “sexually assaulted”.
Reader views (25)
Hi Hailey,
what do you mean by the'system'? I'm part of it, but I don't hurt old ladies. 'No body is beyond change and cannot make a positive contribution towards society' you say. Well,may I suggest, that instead of being 'disturbed by some of these comments', you throw away your undergraduate sociology notes and read some history: I suggest a biography of Adolph Hitler might be a good starting point 'it weren't my fault guv, it were society that were to blame.
- Tony, london.uk
Deportation does sound like a very economic way of getting rid of these two. In so many other countries, immigrants feel PRIVILEGED and lucky to be allowed in to live. They behave accordingly. Why not in ours?
The threat of deportation for violent crime would be an excellent deterrent.
- Sidney Marks, London, UK
Hailey and her Dalai Lama are the problem. Get your heads out of your backsides and quickly England. You have become a morally bankcrupt country full of the scum of the earth, both homegrown and imported.
I'm sure you will find fault with the good ol USA from your holier than thou pontificating but you can walk through suburbs akin to Hampstead in this country and not be set upon by scum. If you does happen you are free to blow their brains out.
People ask me will I ever move back. NEVER. It has become a toilet.
- Scott B, Boston, USA
FIRST of all, no-one should be saying they should be 'sent back' to anywhere; they were BORN here. Yes, the crimes were disgusting but who are ANY of you to judge them?! God alone can do that and it's a shame the media dont believe in printing EVERYTHING they see ro hear in court.....
- Leian, Northolt,London
Hailey, London
Are you for real? If this was about wanting a better life they would not have spent what they stole on drugs. They are a pair of scum bags and should have received a comensurate punishment.
- Adam, London
Some of you seem to think the introduction of a death penalty will
deter such criminals from committing crime. This is myth, if you
look at America for example, the states where the death penalty is
used, you’ll find that the overall crime rates within those areas
have actually increased, not decreased. A small minority of
people can be rehabilitated, but the vast majority will remain
career criminals, because their whole culture revolves around
criminality and lax sentencing is another incentive to carry on.
- Raul, Lewisham, London
There is a growing frustration against the law, which seem to protect the villain, we have seen this week, again a mother and daughter, committing suicide because she was constantly being harased by yobs and couldn't get police protection. There comes a point where enough is enough!
- M Jones, London
Dk.London.Your o so right.We devalue life by not implementing the ultimate penalty for the ultimate crime.But i don't think these 2 have committed murder,so i don't see the death sentence as just punishment in this case.
- Kev, London-UK
Paulie,UK.
Trouble is , in the UK, all the parties are soft on crime, but then, most of them have been mugging us for inflated expenses for years, so you cant really expect one criminal to be hard on another criminal, no?.
- David Crocket, Bradford, UK
What is wrong with our justice system? -Fourteen years? -That's not Life! And the useless scum will probably be out in ten, to either re-offend or live on benefits!
I won't vote for the death penalty, but why oh why can't 'life' mean 'life'? -And with hard labour!
- Huggy, Cumbernauld Scotland
Crimes like these deserve a suspended death penalty (even though by luck, they killed nobody). What this would mean is that the ciminal might in future face the death penalty, if he reoffends in a similar or worse way after serving his sentence.
We should also re-start giving criminals consecutive sentences for consecutive assaults. It may be reasonable to consider multiple thefts as a single pattern of criminal behaviour, but this should never have become automatic, especially not for murderous assaults against unassociated victims at different times. Fourteen years is not nearly enough - these men should have been jailed until well into their sixties.
Never let anyone blame drugs. Addiction may drive many addicts to theft, but the vast majority never turn to violence. This proves the undiminished culpability of the others.
- Nigel, London
Get the scum out of Britain when they have served their paultry jail term and send them back from whence they came.
- John, benidorm spain
I'm quite disturbed by these comments. While I do not condone their actions and think that justice must be served, they are a product of the society they live in. Rather target your efforts at reforming the system that made them who they are today. Don't we love to pass the buck and allocate blame rather than look at what is wrong with our society and address what needs mending. I also refuse to believe that anyone is beyond change and cannot make a positive contribution to society. But that's not a easy option for anyone and we all love our confort zones too much. As the Dalai Lama says, we are all part of one society and when something goes wrong we should not ask 'what is wrong with THEM?', but ask instead 'what is wrong with US?'.
- Hailey, London, United Kingdom
Paulie,UK.
Trouble is , in the UK, all the parties are soft on crime, but then, most of them have been mugging us for inflated expenses for years, so you cant really expect one criminal to be hard on another criminal, no?.
- David Crocket, Bradford, UK
A pair of totally despicable and utterly worthless criminals. Why haven't these two swinish members of humanity been jailed for at least a minimum of fifty years?
- Zaphod, London
Out in 3 months then..."tough on the causes of crime"...liars liars pants on fire
- Amoreno, luxembourg
Gutless cowards given a few years in a comfy jail.
Small wonder the dregs of the universe are fighting to get into
the UK
- British Not Racist, Bracknell England
Scum. Stop wasting tax payers money by putting them in jail. Bring back the death penalty. Yesterday I read these two scum bags spend GBP12,000 per month on crack.
You can't convert them, some people are beyond repair and a danger to society. Empty the prisons of drug offenders and send them to Afghanistan and pump the saved money into education, teachers, nurses & pensioners.
- Frank, Copenhagen, Denmark
The true face of crime in London.
- Frank, Home Counties, England.
These two are the lowest of the low. There were two of them who targetted lone women. Not only did they rob with violence, they seemed to make it a point of their robberies to nearly kill the women. No woman is safe with the violent one ever on the streets.
- Denise, London
Clearly two more people that should have never been allowed into this country. They MUST be deported and barred once their sentances are served.
- Brandon Thomas, SW7
When is this country going to wake up and start really shaking up those that are voted in to seats of power to bring back the death sentence.
Two worthless pieces of flotsam that have attacked 84-yr-olds and lone women. such truly hard men.
Drug-addled? No excuse. They do not deserve to be placed into the prison system at "Her Majesty's Pleasure". I am sure Her Majesty would take even more pleasure that these two lost all claim to human rights because of their actions and should pay the ultimate penalty.
They are not going to add anything positive to society, community and life on their release, so why go through the motions of a pathetic slap on the wrist.
Scum!
- Dk, London
Trust they have British passports ?
- Grim Reaper, Hell
great british justice ... in the states , this scum would not see daylight for 40 years ... get labour out and get tough on crime
- Paulie, uk
These two *really* should be deported back to their birthplace, the French Caribbean after jailterms have been served. Let's hope there is a Government in power by then who will ensure it?
- Paul, London
