A York teenager who staged a daylight knifepoint robbery has been jailed.

Craig Longhawn wore a mask from the horror film Scream as he held his weapon to the throat of a 16-year-old and made him hand over his £100 wages, prosecutor David Garnett said.

York Crown Court heard that police had no evidence to connect him with the robbery near the junction of Rosedale Avenue and Woodlea Avenue, Acomb, until they arrested Longhawn for burgling a pensioner's home 18 months later.

Then the teenager voluntarily confessed to the robbery, the house raid and several other burglaries.

Longhawn, 18, of Poplar Street, Holgate, pleaded guilty to robbery and burglary, and asked for five more offences to be taken into consideration.

His barrister, Glenn Parsons, said the robbery was an act of desperation because the teenager had a cannabis debt. He said Longhorn was now off drugs.

Mr Garnett said the victim was so terrified by the knife attack, at 6pm on April 29, 2002, that he was too scared to use the same route again.

Longhawn grabbed the victim, put the knife to his throat at 6pm and said: "Give me your money - this is no joke."

On April 23, 2003, a pensioner returning to his home in Boroughbridge Road, Acomb, at about 4pm, surprised three teenagers raiding his house. Police found his £1,200 laptop computer and three abandoned cycles nearby.

Detectives found Longhawn's fingerprints at the house and arrested him in November, 2003.

Updated: 10:41 Tuesday, April 27, 2004