A man has been found guilty of robbing an 87-year-old artist who was left fighting for her life after the attack in her Camden home.
Andrew Alexander, 37, of Sutton Lane South, Chiswick, attacked Stella Magarshak at her home in Albert Street at around 8pm on November 22 last year.
The much-loved art teacher, who had taught at King Alfred School, in Golders Green, was returning from grocery shopping in Camden when Alexander followed her into the converted house.
After Ms Magarshak asked him who he was there to see, he snatched the victim’s bag and fled at speed.
The pensioner then went upstairs to tell a relative, but later collapsed.
Police issued a CCTV appeal and Alexander was charged on January 6 with robbing Ms Magarshak and with another separate robbery where he pushed over an 84 year old woman whilst stealing her handbag on Sutton Court Road, Chiswick.
He is due to be sentenced on October 6 at Kingston Crown Court
Det Con Brett Jones, said: “I would like to thank all of those who have assisted in this investigation.
“This result will bring justice to the victims and their families, and the public in general, knowing that Alexander, a man that preys on the most vulnerable members of our community, has been apprehended.”
As reported in the Ham&High, Ms Magarshak, was rushed to the Royal Free Hospital, in Hampstead, in a critical condition. She had suffered from a brain haemorrhage although it is unclear why it occurred.
A few days later, her niece Emily Morris, 58, told of her shock at th attack on her aunt.
She said Stella, who grew up in Hampstead and studied at New End Primary School was “still painting, still incredibly active” before the robbery.
“She was still looking after the whole family,” Emily said. “This idea that just because you’re old, you’re dependent. She wasn’t at all.”
Stella, who exhibited her painting at Lauderdale House in 2011, lived with her extended family in a penthouse between two conjoined houses on Albert Street.
Unmarried and childless, she cared for her late sister’s six children, moving there in the 1970s.
A police spokesman said that Miss Magarshak has since been discharged from hospital but now requires 24 hour palliative care.
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