A YOUNG man has been found not guilty of allegedly robbing a teenager of a bicycle at knifepoint in Carlisle – but given a jail sentence for stealing it from him without the use of any force.
Stanley Wood, 19, went on trial at the city’s crown court earlier this week.
Wood admitted he stole the £500 Voodoo pedal cycle from a 17-year-old male in the Westmorland Street area of Denton Holme at around 4am on August 3 last year. The teen had given Wood – a stranger – a “backie” to that location from the city centre.
But Wood pleaded not guilty to robbery, denying the teenager’s allegation that he had slammed him to the floor and produced a knife which was held to his neck before riding off.
As the trial for under way, Judge Nicholas Barker said to a jury of seven women and five men: “That’s going to be the issue you’re wrestling with in this case: can the prosecution make you sure that force was used or threatened?”
Today (FRI), the jury found Wood not guilty of robbery. He was punished for stealing the bike, Judge Barker imposing a nine-month young offender institution sentence. Wood, of Biverfield Road, Prudhoe, was also ordered to pay a £149 victim surcharge.
