January 29, 2010

Guilty verdict in dairy robbery trial

A jury has accepted a strong circumstantial case against 21-year-old Steven Anthony Paul Emery and convicted him of an attempt to rob a St Albans dairy at knifepoint.

The robbery yielded nothing — the robber left when the dairy owner came out of a back room holding a knife of his own — and the offender could not be identified at the scene.

But Emery was found more than two hours later driving the getaway car with the knife lying in a parcel tray, and with a crumpled paper bag similar to the one he had demanded the diary owner fill with money.

The defence, which called no evidence, said the crown had not proved the link between Emery and the robbery. The dairy owner could not pick the alleged offender out of a photo montage provided by the police, saying the would-be robber had the hood of his sweatshirt over his head during the incident.

Emery was found wearing a sweatshirt matching the description later that night, after the dairy owner had scribbled the registration number of the getaway car on the back of a receipt.

Emery denied the charge of demanding with menaces, but the Christchurch District Court jury found him guilty today at the end of a three-day trial.

He was found at an Avonhead Road address where the car was registered to another person, but about the time of the robbery he was visiting a house in Holly Road, very close to the dairy.

The crown said the getaway car had been parked just across from the dairy in Springfield Road at the time of the incident.

The police found no identifiable fingerprints on the knife.

Kathy Bell and Dr Heather McKenzie appeared for the crown, and Paul Norcross and April Kelland appeared for Emery.

After the guilty verdict, Judge Gary MacAskill remanded Emery for sentence on this charge, and a charge of driving while disqualified which he admitted today.

The disqualified driving charge carries heavier penalties because he has been convicted of the same offence twice before.

Emery spent five months in custody after his arrest but was granted bail on December 22 to live with his mother in Riccarton under a 24-hour a day curfew.

Judge MacAskill remanded him on bail to February 25 for sentence and asked for a presentence report which will cover his suitability for home detention.

Emery has previous convictions for petty thefts, receiving stolen property, and two recent burglaries.

The dairy owner, who owned the shop for three years, no longer lives in Christchurch.