Evil Joanne Crossman was behind bars today after attacking and threatening to kill a vulnerable and disabled man and forcing him to hand over money from his bank account.

Crossman, aged 30, and her former lover Rocky Parker, 28, put their 55-year-old victim, Vincent Powell, through an 18-hour nightmare during which he was twice driven to cash machines so his tormenters could buy drugs, York Crown Court was told.

Crossman, of Station Avenue, New Earswick, who knew Mr Powell, threatened to cut his throat, cut his face and hit him with a hockey stick to force him to reveal his bank card PIN number.

She was jailed for seven years for robbery and theft by the Recorder of York, Judge Stephen Ashurst, who described her as “cruel and manipulative”.

Parker, of Barkston Avenue, Chapelfields, York, was also jailed for seven years for robbery and theft.

Crossman and Mr Powell, who has severe spinal injuries, a replacement hip and mild learning difficulties, knew each other through a common interest in dogs and visited each other’s homes.

But her attitude towards him changed as she began to reform her relationship with Rocky Parker, the father of at least one of her children. On February 20, Mr Powell went to Crossman’s home while Parker was there.

Parker threatened to kill Mr Powell, grabbing hold of him while Crossman tried to take his wallet.

When he resisted, she fetched a kitchen knife and threatened to cut his throat.

As he continued to defy the pair’s demands for his bank card, she repeatedly jabbed the knife towards his face, cutting him once.

Parker punched him while Crossman hit him with a hockey stick.

Eventually Mr Powell surrendered his card and PIN number. They drove him in his car to a cash machine in Haxby and threatened to kill his dog if he tried to escape, and to kill him if the number was wrong. At Haxby, they took £350 from his account, which they spent on drugs before returning with Mr Powell to Crossman’s flat. The three stayed all night there.

In the morning, Mr Powell was told to drive them to a cash machine in Acomb so they could take £300 from his bank account. He drove them to Chapelfields before he went home alone and stayed there for days.

Seven days later, Parker went to Mr Powell’s home with a third man, Stephen Eastwood. Parker falsely claimed Eastwood had just served four years for stabbing someone, and then made him drive them to another cash machine where they took £80, leaving him with only £2 in the bank. The accomplices used the money to buy drugs.

Only days afterwards did Mr Powell tell his daughter what had happened.

Judge Ashurst told Crossman: “To put a knife to a man’s throat in these circumstances was a terrible and cowardly thing to do.

“I take the view, looking at your case overall and the relish with which you together with Parker committed the offences, you are a very cruel, manipulative woman.”

Describing Mr Powell as looking much older than his years, the judge said: “He is a man with a number of vulnerabilities and you knew that as well.”

Crossman pleaded guilty to robbery and two thefts and Parker pleaded guilty to robbery and three thefts.

Eastwood, 44, of Gale Lane, Acomb, who pleaded guilty to handling £20 of the £80 stolen by Parker, was jailed for ten months.

“It’s not the value of the money that is significant here, it is the circumstances and the context,” said the judge.

Glenn Parsons, for Crossman, and Nicholas Barker, for Parker, said the violence was unplanned and their clients had been heroin addicts, but were now drug-free. They were remorseful.

Mr Parsons said Crossman was now improving her education and planned to move to Durham on her release. Mr Barker said Parker had been living a “hand-to-mouth existence”.

Sabrina Hartshorn, for Eastwood, said he had been addicted to heroin at the time.

Afterwards Detective Constable Leah Wallhead, of York CID, said: “It is very satisfying when malicious and calculating offenders like Rocky Parker and Joanne Crossman are made to face up to the full consequences of their actions.”


Joanne Crossman ‘set up’ bank manager to be robbed

JOANNE Crossman was jailed for two years in June 1998 for setting up a bank manager to be robbed at knifepoint and locked in his car boot.

He was one of her clients when she was 17 and working as a prostitute, and she had asked him to meet her.

Instead, he was met by Kevin Joseph Castle and her boyfriend, Jason Francis Smith, who robbed him at knifepoint, took money from a cash machine with his bank card and locked him in his car boot for five hours. But when she rang him to set up their meeting, she did not put her receiver down properly, and his phone had recorded the conversation she then had with the robbers, in which they planned the robbery.

At the time, Crossman’s lawyer told the court she had got into prostitution at the age of 16 under the influence of a violent pimp. He also said she was hoping to move out of York, where she had taken up with bad company.

Crossman failed to attend court when she was expected to give evidence against the robbers and was arrested on a warrant. She pleaded guilty to robbery and false imprisonment.

In March this year, she was jailed for 12 weeks for stealing lager from a supermarket, which she said she needed for Dutch courage before another court case.

Crossman was in court in February facing a charge for breaching a community order that had been imposed on her in January for five offences of theft.