A TAMWORTH teenager who bashed a man after trying to rob him of cigarettes and money will be released on parole next month, after time served.
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Nineteen-year-old Leon Prince pleaded guilty to aggravated assault with intent to rob by inflicting actual bodily harm, and appeared in the dock of Tamworth District Court for sentencing on Monday.
Judge Jeffery McLennan gave Prince a 25 per cent discount for his early guilty plea and said it was “quite serious behaviour” by Prince in “pursuing [the victim] from the extent he did”.
He said Prince was “effectively sitting on him and, it seems, pushing the object he had in his hand”.
“He really has to come to understand that he can’t come to behave like this,” Judge McLennan told the court.
He was handed a 25-month sentence with a minimum of 11 months non-parole.
He really has to come to understand that he can’t come to behave like this.
- Judge Jeffery McLennan
After time served, Prince will be eligible for release in early December.
The court heard the victim noticed Prince around his house about three weeks before the January 3 incident in Coledale.
The victim went to buy cigarettes from the IGA in Robert Street when Prince approached him near the intersection of Tingira and Sussex streets about 8am.
On a bike at the time, Prince asked the victim: “What’s in your hand?” before asking him for money and “to shout him a shot” of drugs, Judge McLennan said.
The victim kept walking before Prince picked up a clear bottle, pointed the neck at him and walked towards him at speed, saying “‘Give me your money’ a number of times in an aggressive tone”, Judge McLennan said.
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The victim jumped the fence, ran into the yard and fell, landing on his stomach before he felt something sharp push into his back a few times.
Prince was heard to yell: “I’m going to come back and get you ... I know where youse live”, before fleeing.
The victim suffered lacerations to his back, abrasions, grazing and other pain.
Police were called; they seized the bottle and took photos of the injuries. Prince was arrested two days later, hiding under a pile of clothes in a bedroom after a foot pursuit with officers.
Judge McLennan said the “persistent pursuit of the victim”, and the fact Prince armed himself with the weapon, was serious.
Prince, who was on conditional liberty at the time, left empty-handed but Judge McLennan said he was “prepared to accept the conduct of Mr Prince was spontaneous”.
The court heard Prince had a “traumatic” and troubled upbringing, had learnt to use drugs as a coping mechanism, and “his youth” and background “reduced moral culpability”.
“He has pleaded guilty and he has accepted responsibility through his plea,” Judge McLennan said.
Charges of shoplifting, possessing cannabis and trespass – all committed on the same day of the offence – were taken into account in sentencing.
Breanna Chillingworth
Northern Daily Leader Senior Crime and Court Reporter
Northern Daily Leader Senior Crime and Court Reporter
