A ROBBER who brandished a walking stick and hurled objects as he confronted a petrified Carlisle petrol station shop worker has been jailed.
Shawn McClean – a 52-year-old with a long history of mental health issues – entered the Esso store on Wigton Road at around 4-30am on April 8.
McClean asked for 400 cigarettes but then tried to leave the store without paying, prompting the 20-year-old lone employee to lock the door.
During a bizarre 18-minute incident captured on CCTV, the worker switched off the fuel supply to the pumps after McClean lit a cigarette. McClean hurled a can of deodorant, first aid kit and charity box towards the frightened staff member, and also a pair of scissors he used in a failed bid to force open a till as he encroached on to the staff side.
Police were alerted by an alarm and detained McClean, of nearby Stonegarth, Carlisle. He later admitted robbery, damage and indecent behaviour in a police station.
“It has taken me a long time to calm down,” the young employee later reflected. “I enjoy working nights but now I am scared.”
The court heard McClean was “not dangerous” but “seriously affected by a serious mental illness”. Jailing him for 27 months, Recorder Paul Taylor said he took McClean’s condition “very much into account” when passing sentence.
But Recorder Taylor – who heard McClean’s crime was triggered by a self-induced amphetamine binge – told him: “Your behaviour was obnoxious, threatening and frightened the wits out of (the victim).”
