Flashback: Problem with bread deliveries, man jailed for sex offences and blind woman robbed of purse

A look back at the biggest local stories from this week 20, 40 and 60 years ago.

1956:

Bread deliveries could have been drastically cut and industrial coke users may have had to collect their own supplies if petrol rationing continued. A spokesman for the London Co-operative Bakery depot, London Road, Romford, said that unless it obtained a further allocation of fuel, there was a possibility of a three-day service.

He said: “We have not yet received supplementary supplies and it means we have to reorganise our daily service. The position will be reviewed after Christmas.”

The depot had already cut the second deliveries and appealed to the public not to press for deliveries.

Industrial users of coke would have been harder hit than householders unless the forthcoming petrol was a considerable amount.

1976:

A Rainham man had sex almost every day with a 15-year-old girl after he finished a jail sentence for committing sex offences against her.

Mr Justice Melford Stevenson said at the Old Bailey the case was one of “horrible depravity in horrific proportions”. The 36-year-old man pleaded guilty to four charges of having unlawful sex with the child and was given 18 months to each count – the sentences to run consecutively. He also admitted an unconnected case of causing a neighbour actual bodily harm and was jailed for 18 months concurrent with the other sentences.

Two charges involved the same girl when she was only 10. He was released in May 1974 and at the end of 1975, he started having sex with the girl almost every day, said prosecutor David Spencer.

The 15-year-old let him because she was frightened and when she became pregnant she did not tell her mother.

1996:

A blind woman who devoted her spare time to helping others had her purse stolen while she did some Christmas shopping in Romford.

Janet Bedford, 50, of Woodhall Crescent, Hornchurch, was pushed by a young woman just after she entered the South Street entrance to Marks & Spencer.

Later, while trying to buy a pair of shoes, Mrs Bedford discovered her bag open and her purse missing.

It contained £65 and her bus pass.

She was left shaken but neither her nor her eight-year-old guide dog Winnie were injured.

She told the Recorder: “It’s terrible when anyone is robbed but it is a truly callous act to steal from disabled or elderly people.”

This was the 27th incident reported in the town since the beginning of the month.

Mrs Bedford had helped to raise thousands for charity as secretary of the Havering branch of the Guide Dogs for the Blind organisation.