A robber who held-up a teenager with a “Rambo knife” and stole his phone used the victim’s own mobile to call the police, a court heard.
The youngster was the second person Joshua Denton had robbed with a weapon, having attacked a women in a late-night incident a few months earlier.
Swansea Crown Court heard the 26-year-old has an extensive criminal record including a conviction for his part in a gang attack on a woman in her own home which saw the victim bound with rope, partially stripped, and then punched in the face and cut with a razor.
Craig Jones, prosecuting, said the first robbery happened on the night of January 28 this year as a woman was walking on the path between Belvedere Avenue and Park Hall Road in Carmarthen.
The court heard Denton, who had his face covered and the hood of his top pulled up, approached the woman and produced a knife. He stole the woman’s purse and ran off.
Police recovered the leather purse the following day but the victim’s bank card was missing.
The second robbery happened on the night of March 23 in Carmarthen town centre.
Mr Jones said police became aware of the incident when they received a 999 call from Denton telling them he had just robbed somebody after threatening them with a knife.
He told them he had picked his victim at random and taken his bank card and phone – and was using the victim’s phone to call them.
The prosecutor said he told police he had a “Rambo knife in his pants” and officers told him to remain where he was until they arrived.
The court heard officers were dispatched and found Denton sat on a bench near the Castle Hotel. A knife was found nearby. He subsequently told officers he had be taking Valium that night and also told them he had committed the January robbery.
Mr Jones read details from an impact statement from the first victim in which she said she had found the incident difficult to come to terms with.
She said she used to feel comfortable going out at any time of the day or night but the robbery had taken away her “sense of freedom”.
The court heard there was no impact statement from the 17-year-old victim of the second robbery after his family had “declined to allow him to participate in the process further”.
Inside the litter-strewn hideaways used by fugitive killer as he evaded police for a month
Denton, of Belvedere Avenue, Carmarthen, pleaded guilty to two counts of robbery.
The court heard he has a “significant antecedent history” starting in 2006.
Judge Keith Thomas said he was concerned about Denton’s “erratic and unpredictable behaviour” and requested a pre-sentence report.
Remanding Denton into custody until May 3, the judge told him: “This does not mean I am considering anything other than an immediate and significant prison sentence.”
