A man has been jailed for six years for stabbing a French tourist and for earlier holding up a Sunshine chemist with a box cutter.
Dylan Herron pleaded guilty in the County Court to armed robbery and intentionally causing serious injury to a young French national, here on a working visa, on a St Kilda tram in March this year.
The court heard Herron had stabbed the man in his back, chest and face with a “screwdriver or a shank”. At his sentencing hearing this month, the court heard Herron also faced charges related to entering the Sunshine City Medical Centre pharmacy on May 20 last year.
Herron had gone to the dispensary about 7.40pm, grabbed some medication and, when the chemist stepped towards him, said: “Don’t come any closer or I’ll f . . . . . g stab you”.
The hearing was told Herron wielded a 10-centimetre Stanley knife and then fled the scene, with the medication.
Police eventually arrested the 27-year-old at his girlfriend’s house, but Herron failed to appear for the hearing of this case, which was due in October last year. He has been in jail since he was arrested in April after the attack on the French man.
Justice Irene Lawson said the pharmacy hold-up would have been a frightening experience for the chemist and his assistant working that night.
“I do accept that the armed robbery was opportunistic offending, borne out of anger and frustration on your behalf,” he said.
“I note that you did not cause any physical harm to either the pharmacist or the assistant.
“I consider this to be at the lower end of seriousness for this sort of offending.
“Nevertheless, you went into the chemist shop armed with the box cutter and used it to affect the robbery.”
