By Staff Reporter

Last updated at 12:23, Tuesday, 02 February 2010

A teenager who robbed a woman student at gunpoint in the small hours of the morning at Solfest Music Festival has been jailed for five years.

Angus Arthur, of Workington: Pleaded guilty to charges of robbery and possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence and was jailed for five years

Angus Robbie Arthur, 18, was drunk and high on drugs when – with most of his face hidden under a scarf - he went to Jessica Bibb’s tent last year, having mistaken it for one being used by a man whom he knew had a stash of cannabis.

He ripped the side of the tent open from top to bottom and pointed a pistol at the terrified 18-year-old who was sleeping inside.

“Give me all your weed and your money,” he told her three times, as he pointed the gun at her face.

Ms Bibby eventually convinced him that she had no drugs, so he told her: “Just give me your money then.”

Arthur ran away when she gave him her handbag, containing her bank cards and about £17 in cash.

At Carlisle Crown Court, Arthur, of Cusack Crescent, Workington, pleaded guilty to charges of robbery and possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence.

Prosecutor Gerard Rogerson told the court that Arthur, who had never been in trouble before, told police he had only gone to the tent because he wanted drugs.

He said he had bought drugs from a man in a tent earlier and had gone back there with an air pistol to steal some more, knowing that by then the man would have been “too inebriated to notice”.

But he got the wrong tent and instead of finding the man he expected he came face to face with the entirely innocent woman, he said.

The court heard Ms Bibby was so traumatised by what happened that she still suffered nightmares and was “paranoid” about someone getting in through her window while she was asleep.

In mitigation defence barrister Greg Hoare said Arthur’s “plainly stupid plan” had been “very significantly out of character”.

He said Arthur was now trying to overcome the drink and drugs problem which had been “getting out of control”.

First published at 11:28, Tuesday, 02 February 2010
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk