A ROBBER held up three teenagers at knifepoint in a terrifying midnight encounter near York city centre - threatening to slit their throats.

Jason Francis Smith, 48, told the youths: “You don’t know who you are messing with” and “I will slit all your throats” as he gave them five seconds to hand over money, said Kelly Clarke, prosecuting.

But only one of the three handed over money and a watch. A second filmed Smith on his mobile phone.

In a personal statement, one teenager told York Crown Court he is now terrified of the location where Smith accosted them and he will never forget the incident.

Smith has 148 previous convictions including several robberies and carrying a knife in public. 

He was convicted of three robberies when he was just 15 and has served long prison terms since for locking a bank manager in a car boot and robbing him, slashing a bookmaker’s assistant and smashing up a city centre restaurant.

At one stage he was banned from 205 shops in York because he was a habitual shoplifter.

RECOMMENDED READING

Defence barrister Zarreen Alam-Cheetham said Smith’s crimes were the result of a drug habit that had begun with taking LSD when he was 13. 

He had turned to drugs because his mother drank heavily and his father was a drug dealer. It was “more likely than not” he had been suffering from depression and anxiety when he targeted the three youths.

Smith, currently confined in a medium secure psychiatric hospital in Wakefield, pleaded guilty to one robbery and two attempted robberies.

Two psychiatrists told Recorder David Kelly he is responding well to treatment and could be released soon.

The judge made a hybrid prison sentence of 40 months which Smith will start to serve in the psychiatric unit and, after doctors decide his mental health has improved sufficiently, finish in a prison.

Ms Clarke said the three teenagers aged 16 or 17 were on their way home after a night out just after midnight on June 23, 2021, when Smith passed them near Union Terrace car park. He appeared to be drunk.

He accosted them aggressively, accusing them of laughing at him and wouldn’t listen when they said they were not laughing at him.

Then he pulled out a Stanley knife and demanded each youth hand over £10.

He counted down from five as he threatened them. Spotting a Hugo Boss watch on one of the teenager’s wrists, he forced the wearer to hand it over as well. The watch had sentimental value for its owner.

He tried to persuade the three to go behind the nearby Co-op store believing there were no cameras there.

After he left them, the teenagers contacted police and Smith was arrested the next day. He denied any responsibility.