A MAN has pleaded guilty to repeatedly bashing a service station attendant over the head with an iron bar during a vicious armed robbery earlier this year.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The prosecution had said William Wright, 22, was the man in a pair of tan pants and a two-toned top who burst into the Metro service station at Tarro with two others on January 2 this year, desperate for money and cigarettes.
Wright had maintained his innocence and was facing the second day of a trial on Thursday into allegations of attempted armed robbery and armed robbery causing wounding or grievous bodily harm when he decided to change his plea.
With his mother about to enter the witness stand to give evidence against him, Wright was re-arraigned in front of the jury, quietly uttering “guilty” to the charge relating to the brutal Tarro service station robbery.
As part of his plea, Wright acknowledged his guilt in relation to an attempted armed robbery at the BP service station at Stanford Merthyr about 6.10pm on the same night.
That charge will be taken into account when he is sentenced next Wednesday.
Wright was arrested after his mother picked him out of CCTV stills from one of the robberies and identified the pants he was wearing, the court heard.
But when it came time to give evidence at his trial, his mother objected, filing an application and telling Judge Roy Ellis her son would “hate her” if she took the stand against him.
Judge Ellis ultimately compelled the mother to give evidence against her son, ruling that while there was a likelihood it would harm their relationship, her evidence was too crucial to the case to be excluded.
On Monday, the jury had been shown CCTV footage showing three men – armed with an iron bar and a knife - racing across a clearing before entering the quiet service station on Anderson Drive. But once they got inside, the store was empty.
The attendant was out the back and had seen the men enter on CCTV cameras. The footage shows him reaching for a broom and a fire extinguisher before opening the door and attempting to fight off the men.
However, Wright overpowers him and repeatedly hits him in the head with the metal bar, splitting his head open and knocking him unconscious. The three men then get to work ransacking the store.
One man jumps over the counter, grabs the till and hands it to another.
Meanwhile, Wright heads into the storeroom, grabs the attendant’s mobile phone and smashes a TV screen with the iron bar.
The charge of armed robbery causing wounding carries a maximum penalty of 25 years. Wright remains behind bars.
