Vicious Deliveroo rider bit off customer's thumb during row over food

Jenniffer Rocha, 35, severed Stephen Jenkinson's thumb down to the knuckle following an argument after she delivered his £57 Pizza Express order to the wrong address.

Winchester Crown Court heard the pair had a brief argument over a delivery code before the Brazilian delivery worker attacked the 36-year-old plumber, who has been left “permanently disabled” and unable to work. Rocha admitted a charge of grievous bodily harm without intent and will be sentenced at a later date.

Mr Jenkinson was rushed to hospital following the attack where he underwent an operation which saw part of his big toe surgically sewn onto the stump of his missing thumb.

Mr Jenkinson had ordered pizza from Deliveroo to his Aldershot home on December 14, 2022, but Rocha arrived at the wrong address. A row erupted over a delivery code he was meant to show to prove his purchase when he went out to collect his food but forgot to bring his phone.

Rocha then launched her attack as he raised his hands to Rocha's motorcycle helmet and she bit his thumb. “All I remember, I was shaking her helmet trying to get her off", he told the BBC. “The force with which she must have been biting, she'd clean taken it off.”

Mr Jenkinson said when he lifted his arm after she had let go it “sprayed her with blood”. He said his thumb, which was severed just above the knuckle, looked as thought it had "gone through a chainsaw". 

A Deliveroo spokesperson said: “This was an awful incident. We ended the account of the rider concerned immediately and have fully cooperated with the police on the investigation.”