Armed robber ‘is a risk to others’
AN armed robber who went on a one-man crime spree in Runcorn by raiding two shops before mugging and threatening to kill a lone woman while on bail for stabbing his roommate a fortnight earlier in Widnes has been caged for seven years.
Jamie William Bates, 27, of no fixed abode, was sent down at Chester Crown Court on Monday, October 30, having pleaded guilty to three counts of robbery, three of possessing an offensive weapon and occasioning actual bodily harm (ABH).
Bates began his twohour rampage at 2.30pm on May 30, on Balfour Street where he burst into Co-op store while masked behind a Balaclava and brandishing a kitchen knife while demanding that staff ‘give me all the tills, give me the money’, prosecutor Mandy Nepal said.
A cashier was serving a customer and explained that the till was locked mid-transaction, to which Bates became ‘angry’ and ‘aggressive’, kicking over stands and knocking chewing gum on the floor.
He was given the cash tray containing about £180 from another till, left and returned to demand the safe, but staff had locked themselves in a back office when they pressed a panic button and set off a fire alarm.
Bates was spotted by a resident unchaining a bicycle, throwing a metal box over a fence and riding off through an alley towards Picow Street.
At 4.23pm, the defendant entered Co-Op store in Windmill Hill, again wearing a Balaclava and waving a knife around.
In front of terrified customers including ‘extremely distressed and shocked’ children, Bates confronted staff member James Newton by shouting, ‘right, give me the f***ing money, let’s have no messing about’ as well as smashing an in-store TV screen.
Bates was handed the till, which contained £341.83.
He struck again at 4.20pm in a subway in Windmill Hill, where his victim Laura Hulnes, who was with her young siblings aged eight and six and niece aged three years old, saw him pull on a Balaclava before grabbing her handbag.
She protested that her brother’s epilepsy medication was in the bag.
Bates made shocking threats, and ran off with the bag after its contents were tipped on the ground, with the parting warning: “I’ve just robbed a shop, I’ll bring your bag back. If you go to the police you are all dead.”
Police later found the bag discarded.
Officers caught up with Bates shortly after midnight on Friday, June 2, when he was chased near the Bridgewater Expressway down to Mersey Road where Bates ditched his bike and swam out into the Manchester Ship Canal’s chilly waters, waving his knife in the air and warning police not to arrest him.
Hypothermia set in and he began removing clothes and asking for something to drink, the court heard.
A police officer left a bottle of water by the canal’s edge and Bates was brought into custody when he went to retrieve it.
The shocking spree happened while Bates was on bail for stabbing David Flaherty multiple times at 10.20pm on May 12 with a steak knife at their shared property on Lacey Street in Widnes, after Mr Flaherty had asked Bates to move his bike out of the kitchen while he was cooking.
Bates flew into a rage, jabbing the man with his knife in the back, chest muscle and head, requiring stitches.
His victim stopped the attack by grabbing the knife, inflicting further injury, this time to his finger
Bates’s past convictions include robbery, criminal damage, ABH, three aggravated burglaries, ● knife possession wounding.
Peter Killen, defending, said his client had pleaded guilty and was now taking medication for the previously undiagnosed mental health conditions of adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and unstable personality disorder.
He said the assault was ‘shortlived’ and that the robberies had been triggered by what amounted to a nervous breakdown following the loss of home and relationship. and
His Honour Judge David Hale, presiding, sentenced Bates to seven years in prison with an extended licence, commenting that although the wounds from the attack had been ‘superficial’, Bates still presented a ‘substantial risk of serious harm’ to others.
Sending him down he told the defendant that his future prospects for reform would depend on him staying on his medication.
He said: “At the time you were on bail for assault when you had assaulted your roommate for no good reason with a knife and you had stabbed at him three or four times.
“It’s a steak knife, you never know how far they’re going to go in.
“You’ve undoubtedly had a very troubled life.
“You have multiple difficulties but I’m concerned at how you react to all those.
.“At the time you hadn’t been taking your medication, I’m glad you’ve settled onto a better regime in prison.”