A judge has slammed a robber who attacked a female shop assistant and stole a bike from a schoolboy. Dylan Johnson, 21, appeared at Teesside Crown Court alongside his brother, Jordan, 26.
Dylan carried out three violent robberies and a burglary – where he pretended to be a cleaner. Jordan Johnson took part in one of the robberies with his younger brother.
On June 21, Dylan walked in the Perfume Shop in the Cleveland Centre, in Middlesbrough. Rachel Butt told the court that he picked up two packets of perfume, worth £177, and when the shop assistant asked him if he wanted to buy them – he agreed. But he told her to “f*** off” when she took the perfume to scan it and a tussle broke out as Johnson tried to grab the boxes back.
He punched the woman, who held onto his T-shirt, in the face with the two boxes. The victim suffered bruises from the attack. Ms Butt said Dylan was identified by a detective sergeant, who recognised him on the store’s CCTV.
Later that day, Dylan walked into Subway on North Ormesby Road. A 14-year-old boy had left his bike next to the door while he was inside. The court heard that Dylan got hold of the bike and the schoolboy tried to grab the back of it. Dylan told him: “Get off the f****** bike or I’ll f****** punch you”.
A security guard from a shop nearby helped the boy look for Johnson and his bike. Ms Butt said that they found him and the guard hit Dylan in a struggle to get the bike back – but Johnson managed to cycle away.
In a statement, the boy said that he had been worried his parents would be angry with him because they had given him the bike for Christmas. He said that he was sad he could no longer cycle to school on it and that he couldn’t play out with his friends anymore, because they all went out on their bikes.
During sentencing, Judge Peter Makepeace told Dylan Johnson: “I’m not sure there are too many people who think punching a woman in the face is acceptable – not in this courtroom and not in your prison”. He went on to say that he hoped the security guard that chased after him on the stolen bike “hit you hard”.
The court heard that Dylan also broke into a house of multiple occupancy, on Gresham Road, in the early hours of June 8 last year. A man who rented a bedroom on the ground floor had awoken at around 5.30 that morning, opened his bedroom window and gone to the bathroom.
Rachel Butt, prosecuting, said that Dylan got into the house and, as the man was walking back downstairs, he heard someone tell his housemate that he was the cleaner. He said they needed to leave the bedroom so he could go in and clean. The housemate refused.
When the man went back into his bedroom, it had been ransacked. His wallet, containing his ID card and “a significant amount of cash”; his phone; watch and some perfume was missing. Dylan’s fingerprint’s were found by police on a cabinet in the bedroom.
Jordan Johnson joined his brother Dylan in carrying out another robbery on June 23. The two were on pedal bikes when they targeted a man walking to his local shop on Marton Road. “They asked him what he had in his pockets,” Ms Butt said. “Jordan punched him in the face. They blocked his path with their bikes.”
The brothers followed their victim into the Lifestyle Express convenience store and demanded cash, before going through his jacket pockets. They stole £35.
The court heard that police turned up at Jordan’s mother’s address, on Station Road in Eston, on June 15. “The mum said he wasn’t in but police found him hiding under his duvet,” Ms Butt said. “The tracksuit top he was wearing on the shop’s CCTV was in the washing machine”.
Dylan was arrested weeks later on July 2. He pleaded guilty to burglary and the three robberies at an earlier hearing. Jordan admitted robbery.
Mitigating for Dylan, Dan Wilberforce told the court that has client suffered a stroke at a very young age after trying ecstasy. “It’s left him with communication difficulties,” he said. The defence barrister said that Dylan struggles to sleep: “He’s agitated and quick off the mark when it comes to provocation.
“He’s getting help in prison for his impulse control”. Mr Wilberforce said that the burglary was carried out on impulse, saying he opportunistically climbed through a window he saw he could fit through.
For Jordan, Chris Morrison told the court that his client has been in custody for the last eight-months. “He can see he’s wasted his youth,” Mr Morrison told the judge. “He has a home to go back to – with his mother. He has a job to go to, as a scaffolder at the company his uncle works at. He’s worked there before.
“He hasn’t seen his young child since he was taken into prison, but he speaks to her on the phone regularly”. They both attended the sentencing this week on video link from Holme House Prison.
Judge Peter Makepeace told Dylan that the robbery of the schoolboy’s bike was “extremely mean.” He said: “I think you will struggle to find anyone who thinks there is an ounce of decency in someone who robs a 14-year-old of his bike.
“The security guard hit you. I hope he hit you hard”. Turning to Jordan, Judge Makepeace said: “I accept you would like to be a father again. But what kind of role model are you providing to that child?” Jordan Johnson, of Albert Road in Middlesbrough, was jailed for 43 months.
Dylan Johnson, of Station Road in Billingham, was locked up for six years.
Source – Gazette Live
