What happened
On 28 March 2013 a 54-year-old community mental health worker finished a home visit in Fartown, Huddersfield, and walked back to her car. She was in Whitestone Lane when she noticed two men behind her. One turned off. The other kept walking.
She opened the Audi with the remote fob and got in. The driver’s door was pulled open again. Mark Greenwood, 37, took her keys and her clothing and pulled her out of the car hard enough to knock her down and bang her head. She screamed. He told her to shut up.
When she tried to stand he punched her in the chest, knocked her down again and kicked or stamped on her right ankle. He got into the car. She reached in for the keys and was punched again, and the fob broke. Greenwood said it was not worth it and walked off.
She reported it and he was arrested soon after.
The outcome
Greenwood pleaded guilty at Leeds Crown Court to assault with intent to rob. In July 2013 he was jailed for four years and four months. Earlier sentences totalled seven and a half years, for robbery, attempted robbery and possession of an imitation firearm.
The Recorder of Leeds, Judge Peter Collier QC, called it a “dreadful offence” against a “vulnerable person performing a public service in her work”.
What went wrong
No employer investigation and no regulator’s finding appears in the sources. What they do establish is where the risk sat: on the pavement, beside her own car, after the visit had ended.
The public record does not say how her visits were planned, whether the lane was known to be a problem, or whether anyone expected her back at a set time. The exposed minute was the one between unlocking the car and driving away, and no source shows a control for it.
What it teaches
Risk does not stop when the client’s door closes. The return to a parked car is part of the visit, and a quiet side lane gives someone room to stand between a worker and the road.
The habits that help are cheap. Keys in hand before you reach the car. Phone where you can reach it. Eyes up rather than on a screen. Park facing out, so leaving is a forward move. Check the back seat before you get in, lock the doors once you are in, and drive rather than sit.
For the person sending the worker out, the return leg belongs in the risk assessment: where the car is left, what the street is like at that hour, and who raises it if the worker does not check in.
Questions for the room
- Where do you park on a home visit, and what changes about that choice as the light goes?
- You have just unlocked the car and someone is walking at you. What is your move?
- Who expects you back after your last visit, and at what time do they start asking?
- If someone grabbed your keys, would you fight for them?
Evidence and limits
Confidence: confirmed. Two contemporaneous court reports were read: the Huddersfield Examiner report of 10 July 2013 and the Yorkshire Post report of 6 April 2013. Neither is an employer or HSE document, so this page cannot describe her employer’s lone-working policy or its risk assessment, because no source in the record does.
The worker is not named in the reporting, and not here. The report describes the blow to her ankle as a kick or a stamp, and the page keeps both.
Our lone working training covers the whole visit, including the walk back to the car.
Sources
- Huddersfield Examiner (Yorkshire Live), 10 July 2013 · https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/west-yorkshire-news/vicious-huddersfield-car-jacker-jailed-after-4928704
- Yorkshire Post, 6 April 2013 · https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/mental-health-visitor-tells-of-struggle-with-attacker-who-tried-to-steal-car-1868068
Reviewed 20 October 2026.