A woman robbed a shop at knifepoint just two weeks after being released from prison because she wanted to be sent back, a court heard. Karen Jones, 43, a mother of five, admitted the offence and was sentenced to 38 months.
Robbery at Cwmdu Premier Store
On September 29, Jones entered the Premier store on Middle Road in Cwmdu, Swansea, picked up a bottle of wine, and took it to the counter. She then produced a large kitchen knife and brandished it at the shopkeeper, according to prosecutor Abul Hussain.
Jones grabbed the wine and attempted to leave, but the shopworker pursued her and hit her with a stool. Once outside, she swung the knife at the shopkeeper and threatened to stab him. Passers-by tried to reason with her and get her to drop the weapon.
Arrest and Admissions
Police arrived and found Jones sitting on nearby steps still holding the knife and wine. She was initially compliant but became verbally abusive and threatening. At Swansea Central police station, she spat in a female officer's face and spat towards another officer before a spit hood was placed over her head.
In interview, Jones admitted threatening to stab the shopkeeper and said she wanted to go back to prison. She said she was homeless and needed help with alcohol and drug issues, adding that if she was not sent to prison she would "look to hurt someone".
Sentencing and Background
Jones, of no fixed abode, had pleaded guilty to robbery, threatening with a bladed article in a public place, and two counts of assaulting an emergency worker. She had five previous convictions for 16 offences, including shoplifting, theft, fraud, battery, and assaulting emergency workers.
Her lawyer, Joh Allchurch, said Jones was "homeless and destitute" and had been open with police about her reasons. She is a mother to five children who live with their grandparents and are "rarely seen by the defendant".
Judge Paul Thomas KC said he wondered whether, at 43, Jones thought it was time to break the pattern of offending and build a relationship with her children before her drinking caused her "a great deal of harm... or worse". He told her only she could make the necessary changes.
With one-third discounts for her guilty pleas, Jones was sentenced to 38 months in prison: 36 months for the robbery and knife offences, and two months for the assault on police officers, to run consecutively. She will serve one-third in custody before being released on licence.
