Jaydon Lee George pleads guilty to armed robbery at Gympie skatepark

A 22-year-old ex waiter carjacked a teenager while armed with a large knife and in the company of two 17-year-olds while the girl was parked and talking to friends.

A 22-year-old man who carjacked a teenage girl while armed with a knife is likely to spend his second Christmas behind bars for the 2022 crime.

Jaydon Lee George, from Caloundra, pleaded guilty in the Gympie District Court on Tuesday to armed robbery over the theft 10 days before Christmas 2022, while accompanied by two 17-year-olds.

The court heard George and the youths approached the 19-year-old victim about 9.16pm while she was sitting in her Hyundai hatchback at the Gympie Skate Park on River Road on December 15, 2022.

She had borrowed the car from her mother, and was talking with friends when the trio approached.

The court was told George leaned through the driver’s side and grabbed her car keys.

As he did so, he pulled his shirt up to reveal a “large and quite threatening” knife tucked in the waistband.

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Jaydon Lee George, 22 from Caloundra, pleaded guilty to one count of armed robbery over the 2022 theft which he carried out less than two weeks before Christmas and while accompanied by two teenagers.

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George and the youths then jumped in the car and drove away, but not without first stalling the car, which was found a few hours later at the Southside shopping centre.

Images showed George and the youths changing clothes and heading to the nearby Jockey Club after abandoning the Hyundai, the court was told.

Police arrested George the following day while executing a warrant for a failure to appear at a Rockhampton court.

He was found in possession of the knife and the girl’s keys.

He was on bail at the time he stole the car.

George’s defence barrister said the 333 days he had spent in custody on remand since his arrest had “pressed upon him there are consequences for his actions”.

The 22-year-old had finished school to Year 11, and had worked in a range of jobs including as a labourer, baker, trawler deckhand, cashier, and waiter.

The 19-year-old girl was sitting in her car at the Gympie skatepark on the night of December 15, 2022, when Jaydon Lee George and his two 17-year-old co-offenders stole her vehicle while he was armed with a knife, Gympie District Court has heard.

The court was told at the time of George’s offending he had “received some sorry news only days earlier, the passing of his uncle and his cousin”.

“His uncle and his cousin were apparently (allegedly) murdered at Biggenden in a fire,” the court heard.

“He was upset and emotional, and intoxicated at the time.”

The alleged murders at the rural town happened on December 20, 2022.

Judge Glen Cash said those details were “not excuses and don’t really fully explain why you did such a thing”.

He sentenced George to three years jail, with a parole release date of December 16, 2023, though that release will be determined by the outcome of other charges he must face in Gympie Magistrates Court.

Originally published as Jaydon Lee George pleads guilty to armed robbery at Gympie skatepark