A Townsville father robbed a local pharmacy to ‘return to prison’
A convicted armed robber with a “disturbing” criminal history has been granted parole after pleading guilty to robbing a Townsville pharmacy and stealing dangerous drugs.
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A CONVICTED armed robber with a “disturbing” criminal past has been granted parole after pleading guilty to robbing a Townsville pharmacy and stealing dangerous drugs.
On March 9 last year, Joshua Thomas William Watson walked into the Chemmart Pharmacy at Belgian Gardens while holding a tomahawk concealed in a shopping bag and demanded the two young female staff empty the controlled drugs locked in a safe into a sack.
Watson, 38, pleaded guilty to armed robbery and common assault in the Townsville District Court on Wednesday.
The court heard the father of one had a “tragic” desire to return to prison and wanted to be caught by police and taken back into custody.
In 2017 Watson was jailed for three years after he took his six-year-old daughter with him as a “look out” while he attempted to rob a pharmacy in Tin Can Bay.
Crown Prosecutor Siobhan Harrison said Watson broke into an Energex power station with the intent of disconnecting the power to the pharmacy’s security system to break in.
When police confronted him, he was holding a “large revolver.”
Ms Harrison said that at 8.00am on March 9, 2020, Watson entered the Belgian Gardens pharmacy after waiting for two elderly customers to leave.
He approached the front counter holding a rolled up grey sack and a green Woolworths bag which a tomahawk was concealed in.
“The tomahawk remained in the bag for the duration of the offending,” Ms Harrison said.
The court heard Watson placed the grey sack on the counter and instructed a 23-year-old female pharmacy attendant to fill the bag with the controlled drugs in the safe.
Ms Harrison said Watson threatened to hurt the woman if she did not comply with his demands.
When the attendant began emptying the safe’s contents into the sack, Watson approached a second female shop assistant aged 19.
Ms Harrison said Watson “struggled with her” for her phone before she “realised it was a robbery and let the phone go”.
Watson then told the two women he was out of time and took the bag before he returned to his vehicle and drove away.
When police intercepted him two hours later he made “full and frank admissions” to the offending and told police where he had thrown out the bag containing the stolen drugs.
He was arrested and served 429 days presentence custody before appearing in court on Wednesday.
Ms Harrison said a sentence of four to five years imprisonment with a parole release after serving one third of a sentence was within range.
Watson’s barrister Kelly Stone said his client did not induce the pharmacy assistants into thinking he had a weapon.
Mr Stone said prior to committing the offences he was travelling from Innisfail where he had lived since getting out of prison to the Gold Coast.
Watson was unemployed, had no money and had not been in contact with or known the whereabouts of his daughter since going into prison, Mr Stone said.
Mr Stone said Watson started using methamphetamines when he left school and was introduced to the drug by friends.
“His drug of choice at the point of the offending was cocaine or LSD,” Mr Stone said.
Judge Gregory Lynham said Watson’s offending reflected a “desire” to go back into jail.
“If he was trying to avoid detection he went about it in a completely wrong way,” he said.
Judge Lynham described Watson’s offending as “premeditated armed robbery” and said Watson was “for whatever reason out to get caught”.
For armed robbery, Watson was sentenced to four years imprisonment and a further six months imprisonment for common assault, to be served concurrently.
429 days presentence custody was declared and Watson was granted parole from May 12, 2021.
Convictions were recorded.
Originally published as A Townsville father robbed a local pharmacy to ‘return to prison’
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