Leeds teenager robbed victim at knifepoint and told him: '˜I'll find you if you call police'

Leeds Crown Court heard the victim, Shuway Pang, was walking in Merrion Way, Leeds on the evening of April 12 last year when he heard a male voice ask if he had the time on him.

Rukhshanda Hussain, prosecuting, said when he turned he saw two men. One walked past him while the other, Sean Taylor, told him: “Listen carefully - I need you to give me your money and phone.”

Mr Pang said he could see he had what appeared to be a knife in the robber’s hand, with the handle covered by his sleeve and a two to three inch blade.

He handed over his phone and about £50 in cash but asked if he could keep his wallet and cards. Taylor looked at his identification and gave it back but told him: “If you call the police or cry for help, I’ll find you.”

However the victim did contact the police when he got home, and Taylor was arrested the next day, denying at that time that he was responsible.

He was bailed and on May 15, he stole another phone. That victim tried to chase Taylor, but though he got away, the man had recognised him as living in the same block of flats as a friend.

Ian Cook, representing Taylor, said he was a very different young man to the one who had committed the offences last year. Having left home in Ireland at only 16 and set up home on his own, he had got involved in a peer group with criminal tendencies. He was suffering financial hardship, his girlfriend had miscarried their child and his life was “spiralling downwards.”

Taylor, 19 of Beechwood Walk, Burley, Leeds admitted robbery and theft and was sent to a young offenders institution for 32 months. Judge Tom Bayliss QC said he had belatedly expressed remorse but the knifepoint robbery indicated “both sophistication and a degree of cunning”.