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Dan Kitwood / Getty Images
Laura Johnson, right, leaves Inner London Crown Court with her mother, Lindsay Johnson, Thursday in London, England, after she was convicted of burglary and handling stolen goods during the 2011 London Riots.
A millionaire’s daughter who drove London looters around during last summer’s riots was convicted Thursday of burglary and handling stolen goods, British media reported.
Laura Johnson, 20, of Orpington, had denied the charges, claiming she was acting under duress, the BBC reported.
However, prosecutors claimed Johnson was a “willing participant” in an Aug. 7-10 crime spree with a group that included her crack cocaine dealer boyfriend, the Daily Mail said.
The Inner London Crown Court jury saw pictures of Johnson laughing and joking behind the wheel of her car before finding her guilty of two charges but clearing Johnson of stealing and handling cigarettes and drinks from a BP gas station.
A 17-year-old codefendant, who was not publicly identified because of his age, also was convicted of one burglary and cleared of another.
Judge Patricia Lees said Johnson faces a likely jail term when she is sentenced May 3.
The offenses were “aggravated by the fact that they were conducted in the time frame of serious civil unrest in London last summer,” Lees said.
Riots flared in London following the police-shooting death of suspected gangster Mark Duggan on Aug. 4 and spread to Birmingham, Manchester and other cities. Police arrested 4,130 people during the civil unrest, which left five dead.
Johnson, a University of Exeter student, chauffeured looters wearing hoodies, bandanas and balaclavas, prosecutors said. The group loaded stolen electronic equipment into her car, they said.
Johnson set out early in the evening Aug. 7 to deliver a phone charger to her boyfriend, Emmanuel Okubote, 20, known as T-Man, prosecutors said. She was convicted of handling a TV looted from a branch of Currys at Stonelake Retail Park and stealing electronics from a Comet store in the Greenwich Retail Park, where she was arrested, the Telegraph of London reported.
Johnson began a close friendship with Okubote during the summer after being introduced to him by a friend she met while a mental health unit outpatient. Okubote is in Feltham Young Offenders Institution from an earlier a 30-month conviction for drug dealing, the Daily Mail said. He had been out on parole during the riots.
Police said Johnson told them that she had not refused to drive the looters because, "I didn't get the impression they were the sort of people you say no to."
Johnson’s parents, Lindsay and Robert, attended their daughter’s trial each day, the Daily Mail reported. They run the marketing firm Avongate, the Daily Mail said. Robert Johnson also is a director of several companies and was a director in a company that took over the Daily Sport and Sunday Sport newspapers in 2007, the newspaper said.
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Leave a Comment:
Anarchist deserve what they get. 3 years in the pen sounds about right. 1 year at the minimum.
Meh. Not if she didn't steal anything herself. Aiding and abetting isn't the crime of choice for serious or career offenders; a heavy sentencing isn't going to reform her when she probably already regrets her actions by now.
Get away driver gets the same as the guy doing the robbery. They are commiting the crimes together. What is the penalty in England for looting?
Aiding and abetting is hiding someone after a crime. She was a getaway driver. She participated in the crime. At multiple locations. And should be charged multiple times. If someone kills 6 people they get charged 6 times. So if they robbed 3 stores they should be charged 3 times.
Multiple victims (store owners) Multiple charges for anarchists. Destroying 10 stores is worse than destroying one store.
Hope she shares a cell with a 200 pound girl nicknamed FISTY.
These progressive morons need a life lesson.
LOL...How the heck do you conclude, she is a "progressive" anything?
I don't understand the catch and release policies with OWS. Let them 6 months in jail and see how fast they try to occupy again. Anarchy is not the way.
For what? Protesting? Sleeping overnight in places they're not supposed to?
Oppression is not the way either. There has to be a reasonable point between anarchy and authoritarianism. Taking them in and then letting them go sounds fair
Leroy, I had no idea OWS was about anarchy? Oh right, that's because it's not.
By the way the political pendulum is more like the color wheel. One could say that anti-regulation, limited government, Tea Partiers' were anarchists. One could conversely say pro-pot, social progressives are also anarchists.
Just because you don't agree with the agenda a particular group is pushing for doesn't make them anarchists.
No, that doesn't . But breaking laws does. It is not legal to shut down ports, Take over buildings, invade the lobbies of the capital building and banks, smash in windows , spray paint private property. Those things make them anarchists. RIGHT? Try getting permits to protest. That is what the teaparty did.
Haha, permits to protest (shakes head) you're humorous Leroy.
Laugh at laws and end up with pepper spay in your eyes and a police record. That should help you to find a job. Employees are dieing to hire lawbreaking protesters.
That's why it should never be against the law to protest. Duh.
So you think protesters should be allowed to protest anywhere? how about on some train tracks? Or on a runway? Maybe they should be allowed to protest on the freeway at rush hour. Society has rules. Follow them. There are legal ways to protest with out looking like babies throwing tantrums.
Protesters rights don't trump the rights of non protesters. When you interfere with other peoples rights you have gone too far.
Also remember Leroy - the England riots had zilch to do with the Occupy movement - it was sparked by a protest about police brutality concerning a suspicious shooting.
Her CRACK DEALING boyfriend should get 5 years. Looting gets you dead in America. LEGALLY.
At least his second offence. Hard time for this anarchist.
Millionare or not a crack head is a crack head is a crack head.
Obama smoked crack and he seems to have gotten over it. The story didn't say if they still smoked crack.
THE GIRL IS INNOCENT!!!!
Just look at her. She was manipulated by guys older than her and "whated to cause trouble any way they could" via Twitter, thanks a lot.
Just look at her. Are you kidding? what is that your doing Racial Profiling? Judgeing someone on their looks? what? did she bat her eyes at you?
She looks like a young "Iron Lady" Meryl Streep! Sign her up for acting class in the Good Old U.S.A.! Bad girls do very well here in Hollywood.
This certainly is a Darwinian Moment, really . . .
Really! :-o
Hope she shares a cell with a 200 # girl named Fisty. Progressives need life lessons.
Helped out her crack dealing boyfriend I hope the little twit has learned her lesson jail will not be fun.
Can't happen - twits don't learn; $$$$girls aren't sentenced to rough prisons
She looks like the typical tree hugger that's "mad at daddy" and does something stupid to get back at him.
People like the boyfriend are like any predator-they can smell a victim or a patsy in the first 10 seconds. Have a friend that went through something quite similar only the riots were not involved. Young, doing something "naughty" the thrill of being around someone living outside the law, spells trouble.
Yes - teach them well and early. Don't send them into the world dumb about the dumber (and more clever)out there . . .any gender, any race, any culture needs to wake their young intelligently.
just a teen acting just like your daughter !!!!!!!!!!
My little girl hasn't been caught looting, rioting and driving getaway cars. Yet.
Good heavens I hope not! I'm getting grey hair at the thought! Are you trying to give me a heart attack? :)
I hope mama writes her out of her will. Let her spend the rest of her days as a crack whore in London.
People who lead protected, pampered lives seem to believe they are above the law. There is no way this girl was 'under duress' since she could simply have walked away (or driven as the case may be) from the looters -- who were probably her rich friends getting a rush from doing something exciting, since they didn't really need the money.
You do the crime, You do the time! These kids seem to like living in poverty style in Britain. You put something up nice, they destroy it. It's starting to look like a ghetto over there! They need to start getting tough with them or make the parents accountable!
Sounds like another spoiled rich brat -- Patty Hearst. Patty go away with it ("brainwashed"), so this young lady should say she was "brainwashed" so she won't be hung out the dry.
20 (19 whatever) seems a bit old to still need the "bad boy" to feel like an upstart
Bet she was driving around african americansbet she was driving around"afro britons"Yep the link takes you to her f ing afro boyfriend
of course she was driving afro britons,thats the majority of criminals by a long way over here,and of course they think they are better than the average jungle bunny if they got a white, brainless bitch to show off
Well since her parents are millionaires they should have enough to pay for a lot of stolen merchandise. Also her father should be fired from his job because you can't run a business if you can't run a family. He should also be removed from companies he's director of. Let them live with the filth that tried to destroy the UK.
But even though blacks committed most of the crime the stupid young whites will be the ones to get the toughest sentences. Young people today follow any blacks that walk around like they have a chip on their shoulder and say " f yo mama.