A MAN who robbed a 14-year-old boy working a weekend shift at a Wallsend grocer threatened to "come back and rape you in here" if the boy called the police.
And a few hours later, Daniel Freeman-Marshall, 26, while accompanied by a woman, robbed and assaulted an international student at the University of Newcastle Callaghan campus.
Freeman-Marshall, of Wallsend, appeared in Newcastle Local Court this week and pleaded guilty to two counts of robbery in company. He will appear in Newcastle District Court next week to get a sentence date.
Freeman-Marshall walked into the grocer about 8.30pm on May 4 this year and demanded the 14-year-old boy hand over all the money in the cash register, according to an agreed statement of facts.
The boy, who worked at the store after school and on weekends, was briefly in the grocer alone while the owner was praying at a nearby mosque.
"Oi, come here, come here you f---wit," Freeman-Marshall said to the boy. "Come over here and give me the money". The female accomplice then allegedly went behind the counter and stole $180 from the cash register.
The boy reached for his phone to call the police, but Freeman-Marshall said to him: "if you touch your phone I will f--- your face".
Then, as the pair were leaving, Freeman-Marshall grabbed two bottles of coke and told the boy: "if you try to call someone or the cops I will come back and rape you in here".
About two hours later, a Chinese University of Newcastle student was leaving the Auchmuty library when she was approached by the pair, who asked to use her phone.
The woman, 20, wanted to help them make a call but was reluctant to hand over her phone or give them her code so the female accomplice allegedly wrestled for her phone and punched her three times in the face until she let go. Freeman-Marshall then stole the woman's laptop and the pair left on foot.
Freeman-Marshall was arrested on May 15 when off-duty police officers spotted him at Waratah shopping centre and called in the Newcastle Target Action Group.
"These off-duty officers were spending time with their families, but the role of a police officer never switches off," Newcastle City Crime Manager Detective Chief Inspector Scott Parker said at the time. Despite a warrant for her arrest for robbery and repeated social media appeals by police, Freeman-Marshall's alleged accomplice, Kristy Lees, 36, has not been arrested.
