Robbery girl should have been at home

LONGSTORE CO-OP part-time shop assistant Emma de Carteret nearly went home early from work because she was feeling ill hours before she came face to face with an armed robber. But because the store was short-staffed that day, she decided to stay on and help out at the tills.

It was about 7.35pm on Wednesday 27 April when the 17-year-old noticed something peculiar ' someone coming towards her wearing a motorcycle helmet with a black-tinted visor and gloves.

'He came to the right of me and said, 'give me the money'. I thought he was joking and then he repeated himself and said, 'open the till',' she said.

She told him she couldn't so the robber picked up some chewing gum and tried to scan it.

'Because there was no share number, it did not go through, but he did not realise that,' she said.

He again demanded that she open the till.

'He got a knife out of his hooded Nike top and was waving it around in front of me,' said Miss de Carteret.

It had a black handle and was like a steak knife and he was holding it around his stomach area, which was level with her chest about 2ft away as she was sitting down.

She thought about pressing the alarm by the counter but the robber looked at her hand, so she did not.

'I did not give him the money because he did not sound confident. You could tell he was quite young because of his voice. I did not take it too seriously and it did not seem a big deal to me at the time.'

She thought he had got the message he was not going to get any money so she moved away and shouted for the supervisor.

'He went towards the door and looked as though he would come back to the till but didn't. He dropped the knife just before going out of the door and he left it,' she said. 'The police were here in two minutes. You don't know how you will react unless you are in the situation and it depends on the circumstances. I was a little bit scared,' she admitted.

She said some of her work colleagues were shaking after the ordeal. 'I was a little shaken, but the police helped a lot.'

The incident was caught on the store's closed-circuit television system.

Miss de Carteret did not know the robber at the time of the incident but said she does now because they went to the same school.

'I was shocked that somebody of that age would do something like that, which is a bit stupid, and I don't think it would be right if he came out after 10 months,' said Miss de Carteret.

Bailiff Geoffrey Rowland told the Royal Court that throughout 'this short but terrifying incident', the assistant bravely and commendably displayed fortitude.

'Although trying to remain and appear composed, she was nevertheless scared and you were later to admit that you noted that she was scared,' he told defendant Joseph Corley.

'Happily, we have heard that she appears to have had no lasting effects.'

Miss de Carteret had been working part-time at the Longstore Co-op for two-and-a-half years before the incident and she remains there today, working mostly on the tills four times weekly.

She is starting a new course in child care and nursery nursing at the College of Further Education next month.