Jailed knifepoint robber backed anti-crime campaign

Jack Porter had offered to share his experiences as a teenager committing crime in the hope of encouraging others not to carry knives.

But after drinking at a party he stole another guest's phone and demanded his trainers.

When the 24-year-old resisted he pulled a knife on him and put it to his face threatening: "Don't make a scene or I'll give you a smiler" referring to cutting his face.

Andrew Semple, prosecuting, told Leeds Crown Court yesterday that Porter and another unidentified man then went through the victim's pockets stealing his cigarettes, 60 cash and his debit card.

He was then ordered back into the house in Bramley, Leeds, where the party was being held and forced upstairs into a bedroom where he was further threatened to reveal the PIN to his debit card.

When he was eventually able to go he reported the robbery to police and was later able to identify Porter, nicknamed Snitch, from his Facebook page.

Porter, 20, of Beckhill Approach, Meanwood, Leeds, admitted the robbery in June.

Sentencing him Judge Penelope Belcher said it was a nasty offence.

The victim had asked outside the house to borrow his phone to call for a taxi after discovering no credit on his pay as you go.

Porter had then asked to look at the phone and kept it before demanding his victim's trainers as well.

She said it was an aggravating feature that having threatened him with a knife outside and stolen his property he had then been forced back into the house where his ordeal was prolonged.

Having read of his involvement in the NTK No to Knives initiative in a letter from the Royal Armouries "it is all the more astonishing that someone involved in that campaign then becomes involved in this very serious offending."

Mr Semple said the complainant decided to leave the party at about 2am and call for a taxi but found that he had no credit on his phone.

He knew "Snitch" by his nickname and asked to borrow his phone outside.

It was then he was threatened and robbed.

Olivia Checa-Dover for Porter said he was ashamed and could not explain having the knife.

His time on remand in prison had already punished him as it meant he could not spend time with his grandmother who is suffering from cancer.

"He knows depending on the length of his sentence he may not see her again."