Teen jailed for robbery and racist abuse following attack on garage worker

A PETROL station employee was subjected to racist abuse before being robbed in the early hours.

The attacker, then aged 17, had never been in any trouble before.

Connor Williams, now 18, of Dyserth Road, Blacon, Chester, was yesterday sentenced to 20 months youth detention.

 

Williams, who wept throughout much of yesterday’s sentencing hearing, admitted robbery at the Texaco service station on the Sealand Straight and a racially aggravated assault following the incident in December of last year.

 

Mold Crown Court heard how Williams went to the garage in a taxi and was complaining about the cash machine outside which had earlier been used by his mother.

 

Prosecutor David Mainstone said the member of staff on duty, Nadarajah Pirapakaren, explained to him that the machine outside was nothing to do with him and he could not help him.

 

The taxi left and later Williams kicked his way into the premises and armed himself with two wine bottles.

 

He threatened the victim with them, demanded cash and cigarettes, and threatened to kill him.

 

As the victim rang the police, Williams forced a door to the till area and pulled the staff member out.

 

The victim was struck with a wine bottle which smashed and in turn the staff member struck his attacker with a bottle to try and defend himself.

 

But Williams picked him up and threw him to the floor, where he cut his hand on broken glass, and then held him in a headlock for some minutes before dragging him to the front door.

 

He then let him go and escaped – and was arrested at Blacon about 30 minutes later by police.

 

Williams was later picked out by the victim during an identification procedure.

The robbery was all captured on CCTV and the footage was played to Judge David Hale, who said he had used grossly offensive racist language before robbing him.

 

He grabbed him and held on to him for some three or four minutes.

 

Williams eventually dragged the victim to the door before he made good his escape. “It must have been very frightening for him,” the judge said.

 

The starting point was three years but that would be reduced because of his age at the time, he had no previous convictions, the delay in the case and in view of the difficulties Williams had, the judge said.

 

“On December 14, in the middle of the night, you went to this garage a mile or so from Blacon because your mother had some difficulty with her card.

 

“It was nothing to do with the garage, you know that now.

 

“But because you were drunk you were not in a position to understand what was happening.

 

“You lost your rag with the man who happened to be working at the petrol station – who was on his own and vulnerable.”

 

Christopher Hunt, defending, said it was a rather odd offence by a young man who had not committed any offences before or since. It was very much out of character.

 

Mr Hunt said he was concerned at delays in the case when Williams had been arrested on the night and identified as the man on the CCTV.

 

Williams had a difficult upbringing, was a very young 18, was himself vulnerable, naive and impulsive.

 

He said the trigger for the offence was the protection of his mother who had difficulty with her card at the cash machine on the garage forecourt and there were fears the card had been copied.

 

Initially Williams had been polite and reasonable, he went out of the garage a couple of times, the taxi driver left and he was stranded, and his frustration boiled over in a completely illogical way.

 

The CCTV showed quite a lengthy period of him simply holding on to the staff member and it was his case that he feared being beaten up himself.

 

He dragged the other man to the door so he could get himself out safely.

There was no disguise or weapon, and the only injuries were those caused by the broken glass on the floor.

 

Mr Hunt said it was clearly an unpleasant ordeal for the victim. But he said Williams himself was vulnerable and there were concerns about how he would cope in custody.