GTA muggers sentenced
A pair of hooded robbers who ambushed a man for his copy of the controversial video game Grand Theft Auto IV have been jailed for two years each.
Marc Hughes, 21, of Herbert Street, Leyland, and Oliver Aindow, 18, of Kingswood Road, Leyland, stalked their victim as he left a Leyland store after a midnight release of the 18-rated game.
They admitted carrying out a sickening attack which left the victim with a broken jaw and broken nose when they appeared at Preston Crown Court.
The pair had planned the attack when they learnt of the late-night release of the game at the Blockbuster shop in Northbrook Road, Leyland.
Sentencing Judge Beverley Lunt said: "By your own admission this was a pre-planned robbery. You saw that this shop was opening at midnight to sell this X-Box game. You dressed yourselves in hoods.
"You deliberately used bushes as cover to stalk your victim and ambush him and for what?
"For an X-Box game, valued at £40 which you sold for £20.
"This is extraodinarily gratuitous violence because the whole thing was conducted in silence.
"There was no demand for the game to be handed over.
"It is only at the end when he is lying bleeding, having had his jaw broken and his nose broken that you took the game from his hand."
Judge Lunt warned the pair that a custodial sentence was inevitable and told Hughes she was minded to pass a sentence of six years.
However after reading reports of his difficult childhood and references from his partner and his mother stating he has settled into family life with his partner and their baby son she said she saw another side to the youth.
Also, given Aindow was only 18 years old and had no previous convictions she considered two years in custody to be appropriate.
Hughes was sentenced to two years in prison while Aindow will serve his sentence at a Young Offenders Institution.
The full article contains 334 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
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Last Updated:
15 July 2008 8:59 AM
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Source:
n/a
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Location:
Leyland