Ryan Sharp receives jail time for Warrawong theft, assault, threats

A man says he doesn’t know what was running through his mind when he tried to rob a Warrawong electronic store, and assaulted two men, threatening to infect one of them with hepatitis C.

Ryan Sharp appeared at Wollonong Lcoal Court via audio-viisual link on May 10. Picture: Steven Bell

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A man says he doesn’t know what was running through his mind when he tried to rob a Warrawong electronic store, and assaulted two men last year, threatening to infect one of them with hepatitis C.

Ryan Sharp, 33, appeared at Wollongong Local Court via audiovisual link on Friday, where he was sentenced to six months in prison by Magistrate Michael Stoddart, following an instance of shoplifting gone wrong in Warrawong last year, which resulted in a charge of larceny, three counts of common assault and one count of stalk or intimidate with intent to cause fear.

According to court documents, Sharp attended Harvey Norman Warrawong on November 22, where he tried to steal two drones.

Two employees spotted Sharp trying to exit through a loading dock with two large boxes, and advised him to exit via the front entry of the store.

Sharp tried to jump the barrier on the dock and tripped, dropping one of the drones. He jumped to his feet and ran, while the two staff members chased him.

Another staff member began chasing Sharp across the road to a lake, where Sharp climbed over some rocks and jumped into the water.

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Sharp leant down in the water before standing up with a large rock, holding it as if he were going to throw it at the victim.

Another man rushed to the victim’s defence and tackled Sharp to the ground and took the rock from his hands.

While on the ground, Sharp yelled “I have hepatitis C, I’ll bite you.” before kicking out his legs and hitting the victim in the back if the head.

At court on Friday, Sharp’s defence lawyer argued the attempted theft was an “opportunistic act” and that the events that followed were those of a “desperate, stupid man”.

Sharp conceded that his acts were desperate and told the court he did not have hepatitis C like he had told his victims.

“It was disgusting,” he said,

“I made a lot of mistakes that day Your Honour.”

Magistrate Stoddart agreed with Sharp and said his behaviour was “disgraceful”.

“You could have stopped rather than trying to get away and then you pick up the rock,” he said.

“One would be very worried about what you were going to do with that, and then you go on to say you’ve got hepatitis C.”

In his sentence Magistrate Stoddart also took into account a breach of bond, ordering Sharp serve a sentence of six months in prison, backdating from April 6, when Sharp was taken into custody in relation to other matters.