Jailed: Heartless thief who stole man's laptop at dead son's funeral

Sebastian Mann2 February 2016
WEST END FINAL

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A cruel thief who snatched a man’s laptop at his dead son’s funeral has been jailed for more than four years.

Franklyn Mathurin, 47, sneaked into the Willesden church posing as a mourner to steal the computer from the grieving father while the congregation went to the cemetery to bury the six-year-old child.

The laptop had been used during the funeral for a slideshow of pictures of TJ Martin, who was born with a rare disorder called Candle syndrome. According to his father Norris Martin, the photographs were not stored anywhere else.

Mathurin, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to the November 2 burglary. On Tuesday he was sentenced at Harrow Crown Court to four and a half year in prison.

Jailed: Franklyn Mathurin
Metropolitan Police

A second count of burglary relating to an incident at a flat on September 17 was also taken into consideration, Scotland Yard said.

TJ Martin was born with a rare genetic disorder
PA

The HP laptop, which had the serial number 8CG42003G6, has still not been recovered, months after the theft at Pentecostal City Church on Scrubs Lane.

Pat Martin, TJ's mother, said at the time of the theft: "It's as important as life itself that we get the laptop back.

Norris Martin clutches a picture of his son, sat with TJ's mother Pat and sister Tashana-Rae
Jonathan Brady/PA

"Unfortunately, TJ's life is no longer, he's been taken from us, and that laptop has all of our memories of him, short of what we hold in our hearts.”

Anyone with information on its whereabouts should call Hammersmith and Fulham CID on 020 8246 2505 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

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