Teenager stood by as two knife-wielding mates threatened two people in street robbery

Though he was not armed or made threats, a teenager has pleaded guilty to an armed robbery committed by two mates.

A member of a trio of youths who robbed a couple at knifepoint as they walked home from a night out at a Toowoomba club has been sentenced to detention.

The teenager, who turned 18 on Sunday but was a juvenile at the time of the offence so can’t be named, was with two mates in a stolen car about 12.30am, July 23, the Children’s Court of Queensland at Toowoomba heard.

The trio came upon a man and woman walking home from the City Golf Club and the driver had called out to them for a cigarette, Crown prosecutor Emily Coley said.

When couple ignored them and walked on, the driver stopped the car and the three got out, two of them armed with knives, with the driver approaching saying: “Give us your s**t”, while moving the knife in a stabbing motion, she said.

The other armed offender had then tried to snatch the woman’s handbag but only got her jacket instead and the three fled in the stolen car.

The woman was able to tell police part of that car’s registration and CCTV at a nearby service station showed the trio refuelling and police recognised the 17-year-old.

Toowoomba Courthouse in Hume St

The Crown accepted that the defendant child was not armed and did not threaten the complainants but was charged as being a party to the crime, Ms Coley said.

His two co-offenders have not as yet been identified, she said.

“All of this for a lady’s jacket,” Judge Bernard Porter KC said.

The teenager, who had already amassed 12 pages of criminal history, pleaded guilty to armed robbery in company and unlawful use of a motor vehicle.

His lawyer Chelsea Saldumbide, of McConnell Saldumbide Lawyers, told the court her client had a significant intellectual impairment and when assessed in Year 9 was found to have the mental capacity of a Year 3 or 4 student.

Despite her client’s extensive criminal history, this was the first offence of violence he had been charged with, she said.

However, the teenager had been trying to turn his life around and was now able to say “no” to his peers, Ms Saldumbide said.

Judge Bernard Porter KC: “All of this for a lady’s jacket.”

Judge Porter said though the teenager wasn’t the principal offender, the offending was very serious.

“If you can’t walk down the street without people threatening you with knives, everybody’s life becomes harder to live,” he said.

Declaring the 124 days the teen had spent in custody as time served under the sentence, Judge Porter sentenced him to eight months detention but ordered he serve it under the strict supervision of a three-month conditional release order.