By Aneeka Simonis
TEEN armed robbers who took part in a Berwick milk bar raid during which a 13-year-old boy was threatened with a baseball bat have been sentenced to two-year community corrections orders.
Kristofer James Glasby, then 19, and Shane Robinson, then 18, pleaded guilty to the armed robbery of the Mansfield Food Mart store in Berwick after dark on 3 May 2013.
The pair confessed to police early this year after evidence was provided to Crime Stoppers.
Both were sentenced to community corrections orders at the County Court of Victoria on 1 July this year.
The court heard a third under-age alleged co-offender was the instigator of the robbery and was responsible for carrying out the armed threat against the “soft target”, according to Judge James Parrish.
The masked trio, one motivated by an ice addition, spent five minutes organising the hit on the store, which lasted all of 35 seconds and resulted in the theft of $300 worth of sweets.
The court heard that Glasby and the underage co-offender allegedly took a crowbar and baseball bat into the store while Robinson stayed in the getaway car.
Once inside, the underage offender, aged 17 at the time, allegedly began filling his sports bag with confectionary while holding the baseball bat.
A few seconds later, the 13-year-old son of the owner of the store, walked out into the counter area.
The 17-year-old offender twice told the boy to “put all the money in this bag” and after making these demands hit the cash register and a computer screen with with the baseball bat, knocking the screen to the floor.
The boy opened the register as his father, the owner of the store, came from the back of the store and asked his son in Chinese “what’s happening?” to which his son replied in Chinese, “we’re being robbed”.
The youths fled, driving off in the car with Robinson.
Police had no leads on the case up until December of last year.
Glasby and Robinson voluntarily handed themselves in over the robbery in January this year and were arrested.
During questioning, Glasby admitted he was “struggling with an addition” to ice at the time, and was “looking for any way to get money” to fund the habit.
In sentencing, Judge Parrish noted the underage alleged offender is yet to have the matter heard in the Children’s Court.
