A TEENAGE thug has been locked up for three years and four months after a court heard he held a knife to a schoolboy’s stomach and demanded cash from the victim’s grandmother.
The attacker, Michael Leon Williams, 18, had just been released from a previous custodial sentence.
Within six days in January he committed three house burglaries – one an aggravated burglary at knifepoint at the home of the grandmother.
He simply walked up the garden path, put the knife to the schoolboy’s stomach, told him to go inside, followed him in and then demanded cash.
At one stage he moved the knife up to the terrified boy’s neck and said: “If you don’t give me money then I am going to have him.”
He was given four £1 coins but then demanded notes.
As he left he cut the back of the boy’s hand with the knife but Mold Crown Court heard it was only a superficial scratch.
The hooded top he was wearing was later identified by the young boy and his grandmother and his trainer marks were found on the floor of their home in the Coed Aben area.
Williams was released on bail and within a day or so he burgled a man’s flat, also at Coed Aben.
Prosecutor Karl Scholz said Williams had armed himself with a kitchen knife while he searched the property.
Williams took cash and some Amber Leaf tobacco from Portugal.
It emerged that Williams was also responsible for a burglary at Y Wern in Wrexham – the home of a young woman and her daughter. A computer game and a camera had been taken.
Williams, of Bryn Hafod, Wrexham, was told by Judge Niclas Parry: “Only weeks after your release from custody you committed three serious burglaries.
“One burglary was committed at knifepoint when you caused real fear of injury.
“The knife is an aggravating feature. You brandished it. The consequences could have been far more serious.”
Co-defendant Floyd Vassell, 21, of Bryn Hafod, Wrexham, admitted handling property from one of the burglaries.
The judge told him he had previously committed 11 house burglaries within two years and he was now up for facilitating burglaries by handling goods.
Vassell received 20 weeks, suspended for a year, and was ordered to be tagged for three months to ensure he remained indoors nightly between 7pm and 6am.