Schoolboys locked up for robbing woman

The victim was threatened with a wooden samurai sword by the 14 and 15-year-old robbers when they targeted her home in the Gipton area of Leeds.

Leeds Crown Court heard the victim had been left devastated by the attack, had lost her confidence and had turned her home into “Fort Knox” as she lives in fear of the being targeted again.

Duncan Ritchie, prosecuting, said the woman answered a knock on the front door of her home on Fearnville Road at 7.45pm on February 23 this year to be confronted by the youths.

Both were under the influence of cannabis at the time.

The offenders, who were wearing bananas to cover their faces and gloves, barged their way into the property and forced the victim backwards. She was then forced onto her sofa by one of the teenagers while the other drew the living room curtains. They made repeated demands for money and her car keys.

The victim was then marched to her bedroom and told: “Stay here until we have done, otherwise we will hurt you.”

The pair then drove off in her car. Police officers spotted the vehicle, which contained five other people including two young women, being driven later the same evening. There was a short pursuit after the car failed to stop, but it ended when it was driven down a dead-end street.

The teenagers were arrested at the scene. They each pleaded guilty to robbery and theft of a vehicle. Both boys were made the subject of a detention and training order for two years.

Judge Geoffrey Marson said: “It does not need me to tell you what a terrible and wicked thing it is to invade anyone’s home and to use force and a weapon.”