Moment bank customer pushes Alzheimer’s sufferer, 82, over in ‘red mist’ after angry confrontation over taking too long in the queue led to confused pensioner hitting her with a handbag
This is the moment a ‘violent’ and impatient bank customer fatally pushed over a ‘confused’ 82-year-old dementia sufferer after seeing red at the time she was taking to discuss her bank statements.
Courtney Richman, 26, was convicted of manslaughter after she pushed Myra Coutinho-Lopez to the floor of Lloyds Bank in Welwyn Garden City on December 6, 2021. The pensioner landed on her hip and shoulder and died 10 days later.
The incident flared up after Mrs Coutinho-Lopez spent almost half an hour arguing with staff about her bank statements – and a seemingly irate Richman could be seen clapping her hands as the confused pensioner is helped by a member of the public.
But when the 82-year-old hit the impatient young woman with her handbag, branding her ‘rude’ for her snide remarks, Richman lashed out in response, using both hands to violently shove her to the floor.
As Mrs Coutinho-Lopez is seen writhing on the ground and being helped by other members of the public, Richman stands at the side and looks on impassively. The pensioner died 10 days later.
Richman was arrested a day after the incident and was found guilty of manslaughter earlier this year. She was handed a 16-month jail term today, suspended for 21 months, following the trial at Luton Crown Court.
The woman’s furious family slammed her as ‘revell(ing) in her freedom’ and attacked the ‘apathy’ of bank staff, including the manager, who stood by as the situation escalated before their eyes.
The case prompted judge Michael Simon to issue an excoriating criticism of Lloyds staff for failing to defuse the situation.
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He said: ‘The court calls on the banking sector as a whole to ensure that all customer-facing staff are provided with dementia awareness training, which includes recognised strategies for interacting with customers who experience such difficulties and for defusing conflict.
‘It is not possible to be sure that if this had been in place in December 2021 that the events leading to the death of Mrs Coutinho-Lopez would not have happened, but on the evidence before this court it is highly likely that the incident would not have ended in tragedy as it did.’
The court was told that on the day in question, Ms Richman was in the queue of mask-wearing customers during lockdown and was heard to say: ‘Hurry up – people don’t have all day.’
Mrs Coutinho-Lopez had paused to look at her bank statement after forgetting she had withdrawn money three days earlier.
A 15-minute argument she had with a cashier caused a queue to develop and another customer, Ms Yen, stepped in and offered to help. As she led the elderly woman away, Richman said: ‘Oh thank God’, and applauded.
When Mrs Coutinho-Lopez passed her she told her: ‘Don’t speak to me like that – you are very rude’. She added: ‘I bet your boyfriend has left you.’
CCTV played to the jury of seven men and five women showed Mrs Coutinho-Lopez swing her handbag and hit Courtney Richman on the back. The young woman then pushes her, sending the woman falling sideways to the floor.
As other members of the public rush to her aid, Richman can be seen looking on, hands in her pockets, seemingly impassive to what she has just done. She then walks past the woman she has just shoved and disappears from view.
Prosecutor Martin Mulgrew said Richman had demonstrated ‘a catastrophic loss of temper’, adding: ‘The defendant reacted in a wholly inappropriate and unreasonably violent manner.
‘She angrily pushed Mrs Coutinho-Lopez forcefully to the floor of the bank. She struck the floor with some force.’
He went on: ‘The red mist descended on this defendant and she reacted in a wholly inappropriate fashion to this vulnerable old lady.’
Mrs Coutinho-Lopez suffered fractures to her left upper arm and thigh bone and bruising to her left upper arm, wrist, the tops of her fingers, around her rib cage and flank.
As well as Alzheimer’s, she suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
As a result of the fractures, fatty substances were released into her body that caused damage to her lungs and brain, said Mr Mulgrew.
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Mr Mulgrew said as she suffered from Alzheimer’s Mrs Coutinho-Lopez often forgot when she had been into the bank.
She had gone into the bank at 2pm on the Monday, not remembering she had withdrawn money there on the previous Friday.
In mitigation, Claire Davies KC said Richman had lost both of her parents as a child and had a troubled adolescence.
Her previous relationship was described as ‘toxic and abusive’ and she had lost custody of her two children as a result of her conviction.
Richman was hoping to start work again as a cleaner but Ms Davies said her client would require additional support around thinking and problem-solving skills.
But the judge slammed the bank staff – who were familiar with Mrs Coutinho-Lopez – for not acting sooner to stop the situation from escalating.
Judge Simon said: ‘She was a well-known customer and it was also known by staff at the bank that she suffered from Alzheimer’s disease.
‘This was not the first occasion on which Mrs Coutinho-Lopez had requested to withdraw money, only to find that the money was not in her account.’
Lloyds staff, he said, appeared to have taken the decision to simply tell her ‘she had taken out the money already with sufficient repetition and increasing firmness, hoping that this would alleviate the difficulty and reassure Mrs Coutinho-Lopez.’
He was particularly critical of the branch manager who, he said, was ‘very much present but at no time did she become involved’.
That it took another customer, Ms Yen, to step in to make her feel as though someone would help her, was ‘unassailable’, he said.
‘In the event, no effective action was taken by any member of staff to defuse the argument between Mrs Coutinho-Lopez and the teller,’ he continued.
‘That finding satisfies the court that the context within which the physical altercation arose was contributed to significantly by an apparent lack of understanding on the part of bank staff.’
Today, Mrs Coutinho-Lopez’s daughter Michelle Lopez said that she and her family had been left ‘trapped in an emotional prison’.
‘It was a consequence of Courtney Richman’s heinous and vicious behaviour,’ she added.
Ms Lopez said that her brother Miles is undergoing cancer treatment in the US and was distraught to be without his mother’s love.
He had planned a trip home in December 2021 which her mother was looking forward to but, instead, it turned into ‘a solemn vigil at our mother’s bedside.’
Detective Superintendent Rob Hall, Head of the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Major Crime Unit, said: ‘This has been a harrowing ordeal for Myra’s family and our thoughts remain with them at what continues to be a difficult time.’
A Lloyds Bank source said they were ‘considering all the judge’s comments’.
A spokesman added: ‘This is a very sad case and our thoughts continue to be with Mrs Coutinho-Lopez’s family.’
