Armed robbery case goes to higher court

A 30-YEAR-OLD man accused of the armed robbery of a Toowoomba convenience store is to take his case straight up to the higher court to be dealt with.

Joshua Robert McHugh is charged with the armed robbery of a James St convenience store on the afternoon of Sunday, April 30.

Police claim the 30-year-old was armed with a knife at the time he entered the store where he threatened a staff member while demanding money and the keys to the worker’s car parked outside.

Police further claim after McHugh was handed cash and the car keys, he had fled in the employee’s vehicle.

He was arrested at a Harristown address some five hours after the alleged armed robbery and had been held in custody since, apart from five days when he was granted bail by the court to attend his mother’s funeral in Charleville last month.

McHugh was returned to custody after surrendering himself to the Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre in Brisbane after his mother’s funeral.

He remains in custody and was not in Toowoomba Magistrates Court yesterday when his case was mentioned.

Duty solicitor Claire Graham (Bouchier Khan Lawyers) acting as town agent on behalf of McHugh’s legal representatives Anderson Fletcher Turner Toowoomba told the court she had been instructed to seek a three-month adjournment.

Ms Graham said the file pertaining to McHugh had this week been handed to the Toowoomba office of the Director of Public Prosecutions for a registry committal which enables the case to be taken up to the high court.

The three-month adjournment would allow time for the indictment against McHugh to be presented to the District Court before the case was heard either at trial or by way of sentence.

Magistrate Graham Lee therefore remanded McHugh in custody and adjourned the case for mention back in the Magistrates Court on November 16 by which time it was expected the case would have been before the higher court.