Drunken thug robbed schoolgirl then challenged motorists to fight outside Leeds primary school

Nikki Cook had also been taking crack cocaine when he approached the 15-year-old girl on Town Street, Gildersome, shortly after 8am on February 3. She was on her phone to her boyfriend and waiting for a lift to school when Cook walked directly up to her and said: “Give me your f****** phone.”

Prosecuting at Leeds Crown Court, Jonathan Sharp said the girl screamed for help but Cook pushed her twice before snatching the £1,300 phone from her hand. She ran into a local shop and the alarm was raised.

As he got outside Gildersome Primary School, he began wandering into the road forcing traffic to stop. Walking in front of one woman’s car he banged both hands on the bonnet, then punched the side window and shouted: “Get out the f****** car.”

Cook then approached other drivers in a threatening manner before picking up a wheelie bin and trying to swing at another car. He was quickly apprehended by two arriving officers but denied any wrongdoing. He then became aggressive and refused to get in the car after his arrest. When they eventually did get him in the car, he began headbutting the window, so a police van was required.

He continued to be aggressive, kicking the cage in the van during his journey to the police station.

Once in his cell, the 28-year-old continued to make threats to officers, telling one he was “going to dropkick you”. During his interview later he said he could not remember his actions but “held his hands up”.

Cook, of Green Lea, Oulton, admitted robbery and two counts of assaulting emergency workers. He has previous convictions, including assaulting an emergency worker in 2019.

His barrister, Adrian Pollard said: “He accepts there’s no mitigation of how he behaved that morning. He does not understand how he got into that madness. It’s clearly alcohol related, and I suspect drug related. It’s never an excuse, it’s simply an explanation.

"He has struggled throughout his life, he was the victim of unsavoury childhood events and has never really wanted to address them.” Cook was jailed for 32 months.