A WOMAN wept as she told a court of the moment when a robber riding a bicycle ripped a bag from her hands which contained her fathers ashes.

Clare Hewitt said the robber, who struck in Kings Heath, rode off with the ashes and she had never seen them again.

She told Birmingham Crown Court: I lost my father suddenly on April 8 last year without the chance of saying goodbye. He had a massive heart attack.

I was holding on to my father until I was ready to say goodbye.

When she was asked how she felt after the bag had been taken, she said: I do not think I will ever forget the feeling of watching him ride away with my dead dad in my bag.

Darren Dudley, aged 27, of Braceby Avenue, Billesley, has denied a charge of robbery.

Alistair Redford, prosecuting, said on the afternoon of September 3 last year Mrs Hewitt was waiting at a bus stop in Woodthorpe Road in Kings Heath when she noticed a man riding a distinctive bicycle and looking straight at her.