StokeonTrentLive Fights To Name Teenage Robber

StokeonTrent Live successfully applied for reporting restrictions to be lifted to name a 17-year-old who attacked a man with a machete in a terrifying street mugging.

The teenager, who was only 16 at the time of the robbery, was sentenced to four-and-a-half years detention in a young offenders’ institution after pleading guilty to robbery at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court.

The victim was lured to a place where he was attacked by a gang, including the defendant, before he was robbed of his jacket, £500 cash, driving licence and phone.  

Judge Paul Glenn agreed to lift the reporting restrictions. He said: “This is a case where I do not think reporting restrictions are appropriate. The defendant is now 17. He has pleaded guilty to a serious offence.

“Knife crime is a serious issue and, it seems to me, an increasingly serious issue in this city. It is in the interests of justice, even considering the defendant’s welfare, as I of course do, that the press should be able to publish details of this robbery.”