Crowbar thief changes plea

Workers in ‘terrifying’ pub burglary

TWO women trapped a crowbar wielding man in a hotel dining room during a “terrifying” burglary, until he threatened to hit them with the weapon through a glass door.

Nathan John Cosgrove, 32, was arrested in the street as he attempted to flee Launceston’s City Park Grand Hotel in the early hours of April 30.

He initially pleaded not guilty to aggravated burglary and four counts of stealing but changed his plea in the Supreme Court in Launceston on Thursday after finding out his arrest was caught on police body camera video.

Crown prosecutor Peter Sheriff told the court the women, a chef and a waitress, arrived at the hotel for work just after 6am and turned off the alarm.

A short time later, Cosgrove entered through a rear door with a bandana over his face.

He took the waitress’s handbag and then took a purse and cigarettes from the chef’s handbag before loading up 18 bottles of alcohol.

The women detected Cosgrove in the building and secured themselves behind glass doors to the dining room, trapping him.

He tried to push the doors open as the chef pushed back from the other side and the waitress called the police.

He raised the jemmy bar with the hooked side facing the chef on the other side of the glass and said: “If you don’t let me out I’m going to f***ing hit you”.

The women ran, but after Cosgrove escaped the building, he was arrested on the street near the Albert Hall car park.

He was taken to the Launceston General Hospital and treated for an infected leg wound and was later charged.

The women declined the opportunity to provide victim impact statements to the court, but Mr Sheriff said police observed one of the women to be showing “obvious signs of shock” and requested an ambulance to attend.

Justice Michael Brett said: “It would have been terrifying”.

Defence lawyer Evan Hughes said Cosgrove had six children. He said Cosgrove had become addicted to illicit substances at age 15 and he and his brothers had effectively “raised themselves”.

He said Cosgrove now worked as a fruit picker, was well connected in his community and had worked on a mental health plan with a doctor. He was bailed and will be sentenced on August 12.