A PROLIFIC thief who stalked hospital corridors to steal from ill or dying patients has been jailed for seven years.
June Weatherman, 50, was locked up on Thursday (September 25) for 15 charges of stealing cash, jewellery and bank cards from patients in Chelmsford, Cambridgeshire, Kent, London and Surrey.
Great Baddow victim Douglas Hart, who attended four days of Weatherman's nine-day Guildford trial, told the Chronicle he "can't believe anybody can be so cruel".
The brazen criminal stole the 69-year-old's bank cards, driving licence and £35 cash as he underwent a painful hernia operation in Springfield Hospital.
"The biggest shock was not that my money had been taken but that she would do such a wicked, wicked thing knowing that I was in theatre," said retired Mr Hart.
"It is absolutely awful, I just can't believe anybody can be so cruel, it's absolutely dreadful.
"I can't think of a worse crime than to target vulnerable elderly people while they're in hospital and stealing their property."
Weatherman, originally from east London but of no fixed address, strolled into Mr Hart's room while he was on the operating table on the afternoon of Wednesday, October 23, 2013.
She found his jacket in the wardrobe, and his wallet in a pocket, and after rummaging around, replaced the stolen cash with a bus timetable.
"She made the wallet look padded out, as if nothing was stolen – very cunning," he said.
In a "groggy" state of mind, he cancelled his cards and had a nurse contact police, scared his house would be burgled, after discovering it stolen at 9.15pm.
Mr Hart was the only victim attending Guildford Crown Court, watching as Weatherman furiously denied all counts of theft, but missing the moment a jury found her unanimously guilty of 15 out of 20 charges.
"I just had to see the woman who was so mean and horrible. I wanted to hear what she had to say about it," said Mr Hart.
"She was horrible in the witness box, effing and blinding, 'I didn't steal no effing cards'."
The court heard Weatherman, who was arrested on Tuesday, January 14 this year after a number of CCTV images of her were released to the public, also stole a Chertsey hospital patient's bank cards and a note which included a pin number.
Weatherman admitted using 87-year-old Pamela Verrinder's HSBC card 119 times and stealing £6,322 in goods.
She also stole from two elderly women in their 80s who died from their illnesses.
She also stole cards from an 81-year-old woman in Broomfield Hospital between December 14 and 17 last year, then withdrew £1,100 from cash points in Chelmsford and Chigwell.
Weatherman's defence barrister said she had been born into a life of crime, and a cocaine addiction, after she was failed by social services.
"We heard a sob story," said Mr Hart.
"But I don't sympathise with her. A lot of people have rough lives but don't end up stealing from people in hospital."
Weatherman has a string of previous convictions for thefts from terminally-ill people.
In 2001, she went on the run after escaping from prison, four months after being handed a five-and-a-half-year sentence for targeting patients in London hospitals.
Spokesmen for Springfield and Broomfield both stressed their hospitals have facilities for patients' valuables to be locked away.
"We have to balance security with allowing patients relatives access to see their love ones," said a Springfield Hospital spokesman. "During visiting hours like most hospitals in the UK there is no formal signing in and out of patient visitors, they are free to see whomever they like and it would not be appropriate for us to challenge every patient visitor's right to be here, it is not a prison. Staff would of course challenge anyone acting suspiciously."
A Broomfield Hospital spokesman said: "The trust takes any allegations of theft extremely seriously and as in this case we worked closely with the police, having become suspicious of this person's behaviour, which helped result in the police evidence against the accused, resulting in the custodial sentence."
