Man tried to rob bus armed with scissors

Jailed after wearing plastic bag on head as a mask

A Perth man who tried to rob a Stagecoach bus driver while wearing a blue plastic bag on his head as a mask - and armed with a pair of scissors - was jailed for 20 months at the sheriff court.

A jury took just 15 minutes to convict 26-year-old Stephen Robertson who had been on remand in Perth Prison awaiting trial on a three-charge indictment

He was unanimously found guilty of attempting to rob Simon Barlow in the city’s Scott Street on May 18, 2020, after boarding the bus, with his face masked, presenting the scissors at him and demanding money from him.

The jury had been shown incriminating video footage of a man getting on the bus in the city centre the evening after his birthday last year.

Detective Constable Cara McIntosh (30) told the court that she was on duty on May 19, 2020, when she was asked to investigate the attempted robbery the previous night.

“The person appeared to be presenting some form of shiny object towards the cab of the bus,” stated the police officer.

She described it as “long and thin,” with a handle of a different colour from the blade.

The male transferred the bladed item from one hand to the other while he was

Members of the Be Yourself Group (l-r) Judith Moon, Wilma McCullough, Frances Allan and Christine MacFarlane plant a rowan tree to mark International Women’s Day 2021

“gesturing” towards the driver.

He was wearing a black top, grey jogging bottoms and red trainers with white soles.

The man in the video then left the bus and made his way along Scott Street.

Further video footage was then shown from inside a block of flats at 98 Scott Street, which the detective estimated to be a maximum of 100 metres from the crime scene.

It was taken a short time later - and she identified the accused as one of the men seen in the close there and going into the flat at 98a.

He was wearing the same type of clothing as the man on the bus.

The accused exercised his right not to give evidence from the witness box.

Robertson had also denied two further charges - of being in possession of an offensive weapon, the scissors - and attempting to pervert the course of justice by changing his clothing in the Scott Street flat in a bid to avoid detection and apprehension by police in connection with the armed robbery.

The prosecution dropped both these charges part-way through the trial.

Sheriff Gillian Wade told Robertson, who admitted a number of previous convictions, that his 20 months behind bars had been discounted from 30 months to take into account the time he had spent in custody awaiting trial.

The person appeared to be presenting some form of shiny object towards the cab of the bus