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Shop staff tell of syringe horror




Shoplifter denies stab threat

A NEWBURY heroin addict terrified store staff who detained him for shoplifting by pulling a syringe from his pocket.

The pair jumped back and let Martyn David Rose escape rather than potentially risk Aids or hepatitis, Newbury magistrates heard.

They claimed Mr Rose, of Newtown Road, had threatened to stab them with the needle if they refused to let him go.

But magistrates decided that the 41-year-old, who has more than 130 previous convictions, had meant to warn them rather than threaten them.

On Thursday, February 25, Mr Rose admitted his latest shoplifting spree, pleading guilty to five counts of theft involving goods together worth more than £630 from stores in Newbury and Reading between May 8 and September 29 last year.

But he denied assaulting Isaac Asare by putting him in immediate fear of attack with a needle on May 14 last year.

Aparna Rao, prosecuting, said store staff apprehended Mr Rose on suspicion of shoplifting, called the police and took him into a rear storeroom to detain him until the officers arrived.

Mr Asare later told police Mr Rose then brandished the needle as a weapon, told him he was an intravenous drug user and threatened to stab him.

His colleague, Stephen Jones, told magistrates he was frightened of the potential threat of Aids or hepatitis and said he and Mr Asare jumped back, allowing Mr Rose to make his escape.

Giving evidence from the witness box, Mr Rose said: “They asked if I had anything stolen on me. I started emptying my pockets and I did have some loose pins [syringes] in there.

“He said, ‘Whoa, what are you doing?’ and they both jumped back.

“I said: ‘I’m a drug user, I’ve got paraphernalia on me’. One of the guys jumped back into the other one and said ‘Just let him go, it ain’t worth it’. I went out the same way I went in.”

Cross-examining Mr Rose, Ms Rao suggested: “You knew you were in trouble; you knew the police were coming.

“You took [the syringe] out as a weapon and said: ‘If you don’t let me go I will hurt you and stab you with it’.

“That caused them to jump back and you were able to leave.”

Mr Rose denied threatening the pair at the store in Reading and said he had only wanted to warn them that he had needles in his pocket.

Naomi Ryan, defending, pointed out that, although her client – a “prolific shoplifter and heroin addict” – had more than 130 previous convictions, around half of them for shoplifting, none of them involved violence.

Magistrates told Mr Rose they accepted his version of events and cleared him of the assault charge. He will be sentenced on the shoplifting matters at a later date and was released on conditional bail.



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