Wife of author of UK Gun Ban mugged.

Times Online -- UK ^ | September 12, 2002 | Laura Peek

[The KG9 Kid]

Howard's wife tells of mugging ordeal

By Laura Peek

THE wife of Michael Howard, the Shadow Chancellor, yesterday described how she was thrown into a gutter by muggers who wrenched her engagement ring from her finger.

Sandra Howard, a former model, said she was left shaken by the attack outside the couple’s £3 million home in Pimlico, Central London.

Mrs Howard, 62, blamed escalating street crime in London for the attack and said that muggings had become “frighteningly common”.

She said that she had been targeted because she was a woman alone in the dark.

Mrs Howard said: “It was 11pm and I had parked the car 100 yards from the house when two guys jumped me. I suddenly found myself on the ground with someone’s hands over my ears and mouth so I could not shout.

“They said if I did not shout they would not harm me. Then they tried to get my rings off but at first they could not pull them off because they have been on my fingers for 10 or 20 years.

“They did eventually get them off with a lot of pulling.”

Her husband, the former Home Secretary, was inside the house at the time but was unaware of what was happening. Mrs Howard was left with bruised hands and was shoved to the ground by her assailants.

Police are hunting two men who are believed to have carried out another mugging on a 75-year-old woman an hour later on Monday.

Mrs Howard said that she would not have looked like an obvious target: her car was an old Ford and she was wearing old clothes because she had been helping her daughter to move flats.

“I must have looked like the original bag lady,” she said. “I do not think I was singled out. It was just opportunists who saw a woman alone in a place where there were not many people around and that was fairly dark. It has become frighteningly common on the streets of London.”

Mrs Howard lost her engagement ring, an eternity ring and her handbag to the muggers.She said that the bag contained a watch of “great sentimental value” which had belonged to her mother who died recently.

When the men ran off, Mrs Howard got to her feet and staggered to her house, where her husband called the police.

Mr Howard, 60, said: “It was very shocking. I was very relieved that she was not hurt. I know only too well that it is sadly not uncommon.”

He said that his family had been victims of street crime on three other occasions recently.

Their daughter, Larissa, was mugged outside her South London flat three months ago, had her mobile phone stolen at the Notting Hill Carnival in August and her bicycle cut from railings.

Mr Howard criticised the Government’s “headline-grabbing” initiatives on street crime and said more needed to be done, including better street lighting and reform of the early release scheme for offenders.

Mrs Howard said: “It is sad that you cannot feel that you can park outside your house at 11pm. I felt more frustration than fright. I think I was lucky not to get a parting kick in the stomach as many people do.”

The Howards have been married for more than 20 years. It is Mrs Howard’s fourth marriage. Her first husband, the jazz pianist Robin Douglas-Home, committed suicide after a failed affair with Princess Margaret.

In the late 1950s and 1960s Mrs Howard, then Sandra Paul, was a famous model in London.

She is the latest in a series of high-profile crime victims.

The actress Joan Collins said this month that she was leaving London because she no longer felt safe. Her eldest daughter, Tara Newley, was mugged for her £7,000 Cartier watch in Notting Hill last year.

The daughter of disgraced former Tory minister Jonathan Aitken, Alexandra, 22, was mugged by a gang of four youths in July.

In March, thieves attempted to snatch a £10,000 diamond necklace from the entertainer Liza Minnelli as she waited at traffic lights in a chauffeur-driven Mercedes.

[FreedomPoster]

There was a reason we rebelled against British rule - this just brings it home for today's world. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

[junta]

bttt

[David Hunter]

From the late 1950s onwards, the British government started to refuse to allow people to obtain firearms licenses using self defence as their justification. Even before the hand gun ban, which John Major's "conservative" government passed, the strict gun laws made it difficult for Britons to legally own firearms and impossible to legally carry firearms for their own protection.

Therefore, it is wrong to say that Michael Howard and his cronies are responsible for making the British people defenceless against violent criminals. Their policies were just an extension of an old government bias against the civilian ownership of firearms. It is an offence in Britain to carry any sort of implement that could be used as an offensive weapon. That includes objects like metal pipes and coshes, and of course, airguns, tasers, knives, pepper sprays, CS gas etc.

The British government does not care about protecting the lives of its subjects from criminals, it sees all of its subjects as little better than criminals. It just wants to protect itself from its subjects. Its philosophy regarding gun and weapon control can be summarised by this quote from a famous statist thinker:

"The first thing you have to do is disarm the people. A disarmed public can't fight back."

Adolf Hitler

Oh, by the way, now the British government is debating licensing airguns!

[Teacher317]

A conservative is a liberal who just got mugged. Maybe there's another convert here. It's a shame it had to happen in such a dangerous way.

[WaterDragon]

What Stalin murmured to one of his lackeys was "We don't allow them to have guns, why should we allow them to have ideas?"

[WaterDragon]

The Brits violated their own Bill of Rights to disarm the citizens.

[Dick Bachert]

ROFLMAO! They BOTH sound like candidates for Camp Gunfree. We have reserved two prime spots for them.

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Alarmed about the "gun nuts" and other freedom wackos the government allows to run loose?

Wish the government would just repeal the Second Amendment and confiscate all the guns because you believe sensible people shouldn't suffer because of some idiotic notion about some antiquated “right?”

While we can't take the guns away from the people, we CAN take the people (or at least SOME of them) away from their guns.

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No cost has been spared to ensure that Camp GunFree remains gun free.

All camp members are given distinctive uniforms to distinguish them from any gun-toting barbarians who might attempt to evade our security measures. Each camp member is also assigned a distinctive ID number to ensure that only the right people are allowed within the camp.

Room and board are provided to each member in exchange for rewarding tasks designed to provide a sense of accomplishment and to demonstrate that large numbers of people CAN exist in a gun violence free community.

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[David Hunter]

The Brits violated their own Bill of Rights to disarm the citizens.

The 1689 Bill of Rights states: 'That the subjects which are Protestants may have arms for their defence suitable to their conditions and as allowed by law;'

There was never any absolute right to bear arms in Britain, as there is in the USA, since the 'law' in Britain changes from year to year depending on the government's political agenda. The first round of modern British gun controls were brought in after the Russian revolution, because the government was worried that there might be a Communist insurrection.

[The KG9 Kid]

"... A conservative is a liberal who just got mugged."

Then a Libertarian must be a conservative that's been mugged by the police.

Mugged by conservative cops enforcing a liberal law against the natural right to self-defense, for instance.

:]

[jjm2111]

I see the chickens have come home to roost.

[jjm2111]

You've never been in favor of the gun ban have you?

Oh, BTW, are you a pro or anti monarchy?

[MadIvan]

You've never been in favor of the gun ban have you?

Never. It's a stupid law, done in reaction to one psycho at Dunblane.

Oh, BTW, are you a pro or anti monarchy?

Pro. Her Majesty is better than having an elected President as head of state.

Regards, Ivan

[xp38]

I heard the Queen has been talked into a ceremonial puck drop before a National Hockey League game between San Jose and Vancouver next month on her visit to Canada.

[cinFLA]

Some muggers carry boltcutters to remove rings, which are worthless cut, and are not snipped.

Diamonds are not worthless. It has been done for years. A pair of sidecutters will nip the diamond off without the wearer being aware that it is gone.