Teenagers jailed for dairy robbery

The line had been crossed for adolescent offenders who commit serious and violent crimes, Wanganui District Court Judge Peter Callinicos said yesterday.
He then demonstrated what he meant by jailing Dolphy Tetawhero Kohu, 17 and Issac Matana Eriha, 16 for the aggravated robbery of the Pylon Dairy in Somme Pde last September.
They had both pleaded guilty in the youth court last year and had both been on bail for other offences at the time of the robbery.
Kohu, 16 at the time of the robbery was sentenced to 3 years' 9 months' jail and Eriha, who was 15, received 3 years, 6 months.
Two other offenders involved in the robbery have not yet been caught.
Judge Callinicos said there had been maelstrom of serious youth offending in Wanganui over the past six months, all targeting vulnerable people.
Five were dairies with fragile young women behind the counters, and a home invasion where an elderly man was attacked and robbed by two teenagers.
"I am the sentencing judge for five of these cases and wish to make clear that I will be handing down sentences that will serve as a deterrent to the other young offenders."
"For other young men like you there will be prison sentences. The public are entitled to safety in this town.'
He said in larger cities where serious adolescent offending was also an enormous problem, most of the youth offenders didn't know each other so were not too concerned about the sentences handed out.
"But here in Wanganui, a small town of 40,000, youth offenders gravitate towards each other. They all know each other and most have gang connections," he said.
Most are from dysfunctional families, where the fathers are gang members and are in jail for serious crimes.
They are all usually known to Child, Youth and Family (CYF), have little or no education or have been expelled from school so are in alternative education organisations where most of these young offenders meet up.
"The flurry of serious crimes over the past six months by young offenders means the public have the right to safety," he said. "The line has been crossed, and I will be the judge of young men like you in Wanganui, and the deterrent will be prison.'
Wei Lin, the woman owner of the Pylon Dairy in Aramoho, was described by the judge as "diminutive and very vulnerable".
She was there that night with her 4-year-old daughter when the two men burst through the door in what can only be described as a carefully planned, premeditated and terrifying armed robbery, he said.
Kohu had admitted planning the robbery and sourcing the sawn-off shotgun. He had been the leader that night, the court was told.
He and Eriha had burst into the dairy - Kohu advancing with the shotgun while Eriha leapt the counter and put $470 worth of cigarettes and tobacco in a bag.
Eriha then struck Wei Lin across the head three times and yelled abuse at her because she was screaming hysterically.
But when he had tried to deny it he was shown the cctv security video footage in which she and her little girl could be heard screaming. It also clearly showed him hitting Wei Lin across the head.
Judge Callincos said when Eriha was shown the footage he could just have been watching a computer game for all he cared.
The robbery was not at the lower end of the scale because of the planning and careful execution, he said.
And the two other offenders involved in the robbery were waiting outside with the get-away car.
If Kohu and Eriha were truly remorseful about what they had done, they would have the courage to say who the other offenders were and try to atone somewhat for what they had done, Judge Callincos said.
"This woman and her little girl will live with the terror of that night for the rest of their lives.'