A CHARLTON man has been jailed after admitting to burgling Britain’s oldest person today.

Jesse Coker, aged 46, of Floyd Road, pleaded guilty to burgling 112-year-old Grace Jones at her home in Bermondsey on January 24.

The pensioner was born on December 7 1899 and became the oldest person in the UK after the death of fellow 112-year-old Violet Wood on February 29 this year.

Mrs Jones – the only surviving Brit born in the 19th century - was pushed aside by Coker as he burst into her home and stole around £100 of her pension money.

The supercentenarian – a title given to someone over the age of 110 – was not the first elderly person to be targeted by Coker.

Vivian Walters, prosecuting, told the jury at Woolwich Crown Court: “As an adult he [Coker] had 30 previous convictions for burglary – it would appear the majority for offences of a similar nature with elderly victims using a ruse.”

Coker, who had previously pleaded not guilty, dramatically changed his plea moments before the trial was set to start today and was sentenced to four and half years in prison.

The court heard how at around 10.15am Coker rang Mrs Jones’ doorbell pretending to be a delivery driver in a so-called distraction burglary.

Ms Walters said: “Mrs Jones went to the door and called out ‘Who’s there?’ She was expecting the district nurse to visit her that day in order to change a dressing on her leg.

“She heard no reply so she opened the door a crack.

“He pushed the door open, barged past Mrs Jones and made his way into the flat. In the living room he found her bag, rifled through it and removed her purse.”

Coker had targeted Mrs Jones a week before and was caught after two neighbours recognised him and alerted the police.

Matthew Madigan, whose flat overlooks the pensioner’s on the Southwark Park estate, approached Coker and challenged him before the defendant threatened to stab him.

Mr Madigan and next-door-neighbour Tracey Simmons who joined him were praised by Judge Stephen Dawson for their bravery and good citizenship.

Reflecting on the case, Judge Dawson told jurors: “It is a sad fact that you would have been a jury where the oldest person in Britain had been burgled.

“But there is a positive side to this as well – there were two good citizens, Michael Madigan and Tracey Simmons, looking after her and doing great things for her and they had the presence of mind to follow the man and bravely keep with him and identify him.

“You had a small touch of history in a way.”

Following the case, Tracey Simmons told News Shopper: “She [Grace Jones] is such a brave little thing.

“If he wasn’t stopped he would have ended up killing her because there is only so much you can take.”

Coker will serve half of his four and a half years jail term dependent on good behaviour – a sentence some of his neighbours felt was very lenient.

Miss Simmons’s partner, Tony Turner, told News Shopper: “It is ridiculous. I don’t know if someone had put anything in his [the judge’s] drink this morning.

“It is meant to be a deterrent, not a reward – in my view he has rewarded the fellow.”