By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A Clyde North man has been jailed over an armed robbery in which he held scissors to the throat of a lone female servo attendant.
Kuachjon Bieljok, now 22, told the victim “I’m very sorry to do this to you” as he pulled on a balaclava at the Traralgon service station about 6.30am on 25 September 2016, Victorian County Court judge Carolene Gwynn said during sentencing.
Bieljok told the attendant not to set off alarms and requested she pour cash from the register into a white plastic bag and to open a nearby safe.
When she told him she couldn’t access the safe, Bieljok grabbed scissors from the counter using nearby latex gloves.
He pointed the blades at her and repeated his demand.
She showed him the safe’s Armaguard lock that was inaccessible to her.
“Stop lying to me,” he said as he pressed the point of the scissors into the attendant’s neck.
She opened a smaller nearby safe that was found to be empty.
Bieljok fled with $278.85 from the register as well as the scissors and gloves. The victim wept as she rang triple-0.
He was arrested at a Traralgon address, refused to give police his name and address and then denied the allegations during a police interview. He later pleaded guilty to armed robbery.
Judge Gwynn said Bieljok had robbed a “so-called soft-target” who was entitled to feel safe at her workplace.
It was clear from the victim’s statement to police that she was “terrified” by the event, the judge said.
There was “little explanation” for the robbery, other than Bieljok’s peer association, alcohol addiction and diagnosed intellectual disability.
His IQ was assessed within the range of 67-75, his thinking and reasoning skills were “extremely low” which put him at higher risk of “impulsivity”.
Bieljok’s criminal history was blotted by bail breaches, assault, drunkenness, and driving and dishonesty offences.
He was already serving a jail term of up to 33 months for an armed robbery at a Dandenong supermarket in July 2016.
At the time of that robbery and the Traralgon incident, he was on a CCO for car theft and breach of bail.
The accused was born in a Kenyan refugee camp after his family fled Sudan.
At age 7, he migrated to Australia with family members. He had no contact with his biological father and a “limited, if any” employment history.
In sentencing on 18 June, Judge Gwynn said Bieljok had reasonable chances of rehabilitation due to being assisted by an African youth welfare group and his relative young age.
She reduced Bieljok’s punishment, taking into account his current jail term under the principle of totality.
Bieljok was jailed for two-and-a-half years, with a non-parole period of 18 months.
