By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A Clyde teenager has been imprisoned for three years for two “violent and frightening” armed robberies as well as car-jacking an elderly couple and their four-month-old grandchild.
Kuay Jok, 18, with two teen accomplices, approached the 78-year-old victims as they loaded their grand-daughter into a car seat outside their Brunswick home in November, the County Court of Victoria heard.
In a calm manner, Jok opened the BMW door, looked at the ignition and then asked the would-be victims where the keys were.
The victims were “unsurprisingly … terrified”, Judge Claire Quin said during sentencing on 16 June.
The grandmother was allowed to take the baby out of the car, while the grand-dad helped Jok start the car.
Over the next two days, a hooded, disguised Jok and co-offenders used the stolen car during two store robberies in Thornbury and Reservoir.
On each occasion, Jok pointed a knife at the store attendants before making off with a total of $13,000 of cash and cigarettes.
At the Reservoir store, Jok jumped the counter and yelled his demands aggressively.
The worker and his friend barricaded themselves in a back store room, banging on a wall for neighbouring businesses to call the police.
Much of the goods in the latter robbery were recovered when the offenders were arrested near the stolen BMW in Epping that afternoon.
One of the victims said in a statement to the court that he felt unsafe, fearful and insecure in his own shop, and had lost sleep and social confidence.
He’d cut short his opening hours and bolstered security as a result.
Judge Quin said Jok had fled from war-torn South Sudan as a four-year-old, and grew up with little contact with his father who stayed back in their homeland.
Jok denied he had substance problems, though he was affected by alcohol and cannabis during the offences, according to a Youth Justice report.
He had been expelled from Cranbourne East Secondary College in Year 12 for non-attendance.
Judge Quin took into account Jok’s youth as a major factor as well as his early guilty plea, limited criminal history and reported remorse.
The serious crimes against “soft targets”, the value of the stolen goods and the use of face-covering disguise were aggravating factors.
There was a tension between deterring such “appalling” conduct and the over-riding goal to rehabilitate young offenders, the judge noted.
An “impressionable” and “immature” Jok seemed to have been influenced by middle-aged prisoners as he lay wait in adult remand for the past seven months.
Judge Quin said Jok needed guidance to keep out of serious trouble.
Despite a prosecution submission for further adult jail, Jok was sentenced to serve the rest of his term in youth detention.
