Teenager travelled across Leeds with pals to rob other youngsters in KFC

Balaclava-clad Jack Sheard was one of three criminals from Bramley who targeted youngsters in Horsforth for their high-value possessions. Only 17 at the time, he helped rob several terrified teenagers in the space of an hour, including a group in a KFC restaurant.

His co-accused were jailed in May, and Sheard was given two years’ jail during a sentencing hearing at Leeds Crown Court this week after eventually admitting five counts of robbery.

Sheard’s barrister, Rachel Webster said Sheard was now wanting to turn his life around and learn to be a bricklayer, was remorseful and ashamed of his actions and had not gone to Horsforth that night with an intention to rob people.

But the claim angered Judge Andrew Stubbs, who pointed to Sheard’s late guilty pleas and his previous convictions, which includes a previous robbery with one of the other defendants.

He said: “He deliberately travelled to Horsforth to rob. Saying anything else is just farcical. He did not find himself there by accident, he was there to commit crime and that’s exactly what he did.”

Prosecutor Bashir Ahmed said Sheard, of Cemetery Road in Pudsey, had travelled with his friends Ciaran Preece and Harrison Wood on the evening of January 3, last year.

They first targeted two 15-year-olds outside the Toby Carvery pub on Fink Hill at around 6.30pm. The victims were approached by Wood and Sheard in a balaclava and ordered to empty their pockets. One victim had a bottle put to his neck as Wood then turned to the second victim and demanded he give him his bag which contained his iPhone.

Half an hour later, Wood, Preece, and Sheard, were in KFC at Broadway Services when another group of three 15-year-olds entered. They approached the unsuspecting victims and demanded they hand over their property, or be stabbed. Sheard also threatened to rip an earring from one of the victims.

They stole their phones and a rucksack before leaving, but were caught on CCTV. Minutes after walking away from KFC, they then spotted a teenager talking with two friends and had left his bag on a nearby wall. The defendants took the bag with one telling the boy “I will bang you”, after he tried to object. More than £410 worth of items were in the bag.

The police arrested Sheard first, with his co-defendants arrested later at home. Sheard, who is now 18, denied all offences but eventually pleaded guilty to five of the six robbery charges, which was accepted by the Crown.

Sentencing him, Judge Stubbs added: “You had time on your hands and trouble in your minds. You travelled to Horsforth because you thought it was rich pickings. You knew there would be teenagers with things that teenagers have on them, like phones and headphones.

"You set about taking what you liked. Your professed remorse was a long time coming. Instead, you thought you would try to get away with it.”