Saxon Cornwell pleads guilty to armed robbery, burglary, at Gympie Qld

A man who left evidence at one crime scene and also ran at a servo attendant with a hammer before taking a cash drawer has been lambasted by a judge for his poorly planned crimes.

A young man has been told to step away from a life of crime after a judge derided his attempted armed robbery as “up there in the top five most incompetent” armed robberies he had ever seen.

Saxon Cornwell, 20, was forced to sit quietly in the dock as Judge Bernard Porter roundly derided the Gympie man’s burglary and robbery crimes which ultimately landed him nothing but an injury and time behind bars.

Gympie District Court heard Cornwell’s first break-and-enter was at a couple’s Kia Ora home on an unknown date between October 17 and 23, 2023.

The home’s owners were on holidays in Victoria at the time.

The court heard their daughter had been keeping an eye on it, and arrived one day to find shattered glass spread across the garage floor and damage to the exterior roller door shutters.

Saxon Cornwell pleaded guilty at Gympie District Court to single counts of break-and-enter, burglary, failing to give police his name and date of birth on request, and an evasion offence over an unrelated incident on September 2, 2023.

There was dried blood on the kitchen counter and the walls.

She was then told by a neighbour Cornwell had been found by them in their shed and needing medical attention.

Nothing was found to be stolen from the home, the court heard.

Two months later, on the night of December 13, Cornwell was caught on CCTV cameras “lurking” around a number of service stations within a 5km radius of the Liberty Station on the Bruce Hwy at Monkland.

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About midnight, unable to gain access to them, he took to loitering around the Liberty’s ice box.

When the station’s attendant walked outside to check what was going on, Cornwell ran at him while armed with a hammer, the court heard.

The attendant fled to a station on the other side of the Bruce Hwy to call triple-0, while Cornwell stuffed the servo’s cigarettes into a bag he was carrying and, unable to open the cash drawer, instead disconnected it and put it in the bag too.

Gympie District Court was told Cornwell “lurked” around the Liberty service station at Monkland and, when the attendant came outside to investigate what was going on, the 20-year-old ran at the man while wielding a hammer.

He then fled the scene, only to be picked up by police a few hours later.

The cigarettes and cash drawer were all returned to the service station, the court was told.

On Monday Judge Porter told Cornwell his burglary of the service station had “very, very poor planning”.

Cornwell was “never going to get away with such a hopelessly planned robbery” and “doesn’t have the gifts” to be a criminal and “should probably give that up,” Judge Porter said.

It was “probably the most … most incompetent attempt to commit an armed robbery that I’ve seen,” he said.

“This is up there in the top five most incompetent.”

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The court was told Cornwell was “living in an itinerant way” at the time of his crimes, and was supported by his grandmother who sat in the public gallery during his sentencing.

Cornwell pleaded guilty to single counts of break-and-enter, armed robbery, failing to give police his name and date of birth on request, and an evasion offence over an unrelated incident on September 2, 2023.

He was sentenced to two-and-a-half years jail, with immediate parole after having already served more than five months in pre-sentence custody.