Two tearaway teens who tried to rob three people at knifepoint in a late-night rampage in Moss Side have been sentenced.
Marcus Williams, 18, of Seymour Grove, Old Trafford pleaded guilty to three counts of attempted robbery and a 14-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to two counts attempted robbery.
The charges relate to a series of violent incidents that happened earlier this year where the boys, one of whom was carrying a 12-inch knife, demanded cash from a number of terrified victims.
Williams was sentenced to a two-year detention training order and the 14-year-old boy was sentenced to a two-year youth rehabilitation order and a two-year supervision order.
Detective Constable Ian McNabbn of Greater Manchester Police said: “If you take the boys’ ages out of the equation, what you are left with is three very frightening robberies during which three different men have all been threatened at knifepoint.
“One suffered a minor cut and, given the violent threats these boys made including pushing the weapon to the men’s faces, the injuries could quite easily have been far more severe.”
The first incident occured on Friday, February 21, 2014, around 11.50pm, when a man was driving his two friends home from the Claremont pub in Moss Side and pulled up on Broadfield Road.
A few seconds later, the driver’s door was ripped open and the two teenagers demanded the keys to the car.
One of the boys tried to drag the driver out of his car but the victim’s friend, who appeared to be carrying a knife, intervened and the two ran off.
Shortly after the first incident, the young thugs targeted a taxi driver who was dropping off a passenger on Parkside Road in Moss Side.
One of the same two offenders reached into the driver’s side of the car and grabbed the driver by the back of the head.
The driver turned around to see one of the boys wielding a 12-inch-long knife with a serrated edge.
He pushed this knife into the driver’s face, cutting his right cheek below the eye, before demanding cash.
The terrified driver managed to speed off, leaving the boys behind, before calling the police.
As he looked in his rear view mirror, he saw another taxi pull up behind him and the same two offenders ripped open the passenger door to this second taxi.
They then held the knife to the second driver’s throat, again demanding cash. He managed to flee when the knifeman appeared to slip.
As he turned back he saw the teens ripping the wires connecting the taxi radio before they fled.
The 14-year-old boy was caught by officers hiding behind a garden shed on Lloyd Street South, and the older boy was apprehended fleeing in the alleyways nearby.
The knife used in the attempted robberies was also found discarded in an alleyway.
Yesterday, they were sentenced at Manchester Crown Court Crown Square.
“It is clearly both disturbing and upsetting that such young boys would resort to such violent actions,” Det Const McNabbn said.
“I also have no doubt many people will be shocked to hear that someone as young as 14 could be capable of such violence.”
Det Const McNabbn added: “Greater Manchester Police does a lot of work both within local schools and through partnerships based in the local community to discourage young people away from a life of criminality, to stop them falling into gangs and channel their energies into positive projects.
“We have had a lot of success in this area and the vast majority of young people living in this area are good, honest youngsters who would never dream of doing something like this.
“In saying that, whenever you pick up a knife and use it to threaten someone, you cease to be just a teenager and become a criminal with the capacity to seriously injure, maim or commit even more serious harm on someone.
“As a Force, we will not allow such behaviour, regardless of age, to go unpunished and I hope these sentences send out a message to anyone that age is no barrier to a prison sentence so think twice before you pick up a knife.”
Image courtesy of Google Maps, with thanks.
