An 18-year-old man has been jailed for four years for holding up a St Albans liquor store with a meat cleaver and baseball bat.
Liah Pitone pleaded guilty in the County Court to attempted armed robbery and recklessly causing serious injury.
A sentencing hearing on April 29 heard that the teenager entered the store on September 14 last year about 1.45pm wearing a hat, hoodie and backpack.
A store employee approached Pitone and asked if he needed help, to which he said he was “just looking”.
As Pitone walked towards the exit, the female employee asked him to take off his hoodie and hat, but he did not answer.
After he was tapped on the arm and asked to leave, Pitone turned towards the woman with a meat cleaver in his left hand and a baseball bat in his right.
The court heard as the victim ran to the store’s office, Pitone struck her heel with the baseball bat and she fell to the ground. When she got up and tried to take the bat from Pitone, he swung at her with the meat cleaver and said: “Give me the money, give me the money.
The employee refused.
She eventually took the bat from Pitone and hit him twice in the arm before he ran from the store.
Pitone returned to the store and began swinging the meat cleaver, connecting with the employee’s right index finger as she tried to shut the security door. She picked up the baseball bat and swung at Pitone before he fled.
Pitone was arrested after being discovered in a cupboard in his family’s house in St Albans. The meat cleaver was found under a couch.
Judge Gabriele Cannon said Pitone’s offending had left his victim a “broken person”.
“She has lost her confidence and is afraid of strangers, struggling to venture outside,” she said.
“She no longer socialises and has become an angry person. She is unable to sleep and has become fearful at night.”
Judge Cannon ordered that Pitone serve a minimum of two years and six months jail before becoming eligible for parole.
