Knife thug jailed for guitar theft

AN armed robber who held up an amateur musician at his home in Perth has been jailed for twoand-a-half years.

Blake Smith brandished a Stanley knife at Joseph O’Brien before robbing him of his guitar.

Police swooped, however, before the 28-yearold could flee the property.

Drunken Smith said he had been egged on by a woman who claimed Mr O’Brien owed her money.

He later sank his teeth into one of the police officers while they were trying to get him treatment at Perth Royal Infirmary.

Londoner Smith, who was previously jailed for a robbery in England in 2015, appeared at Perth Sheriff Court – via video link from HMP Glenochil – and admitted a charge of assault and robbery on February 5.

He also admitted assaulting a police officer.

The court heard the robbery took place at Mr O’Brien’s top-floor flat at the St Johnstoun’s Building on Charles Street.

Solicitor John McLaughlin, defending, said: “He met up with a lady, who was described by police as a ‘hostile witness’ because she wouldn’t give a statement.

“Mr Smith advises me that she was the person who suggested going up to Mr O’Brien’s flat.

“She said she was owed money by Mr O’Brien.

“So he acted in the way that he did, suggesting that Mr O’Brien give him the guitar instead of the money. The guitar was recovered and handed back to the complainer.”

Jailing Smith for 129 weeks, Sheriff William Wood urged him to address his behaviour.

Sheriff said: “You’re a young man with relatively few convictions, albeit they are serious ones.

“I hope that, as you approach your 30th birthday, you will take time to reflect on the way you want to live your life.”

A teenager who battered a man in a queue for a New Year’s McDonald’s has avoided jail after a court heard he had “turned his life around”.

Layton Chaplin was 15 when he conducted a seven-month campaign of terror in which he knocked out a 14-year-old boy, headbutted and kicked a woman and threatened to kill police.

Now 18 and living in Glasgow, Chaplin was given two years to complete 220 hours of unpaid work.

His unprovoked campaign of violence left one victim with a broken jaw and another with a broken nose.

Accomplice Jay Ciebrant, also 18, of St Michael’s Yard, Dundee, was sentenced to 180 hours.

Defence solicitor Jim Laverty, for Chaplin, said: “I have presented a letter to the court which shows he is in employment.

“I can advise he was on a curfew from August 18 to May 4 last year.

“This is a young man who has turned his life around.

“He has not come to the attention

Blake Smith.