R v YGW

Facts

The applicant, referred to as "YGW" pursuant to an anonymity order made because he, his co-defendants and both victims were under 18, was 15 years and 5 months old at the time of two robberies committed in Birmingham on 7 January 2025. Together with six co-defendants he robbed a schoolboy, complainant 1, on the upper deck of a bus shortly after 1.00 pm: the group, all masked, surrounded him, a knife was produced and he was threatened with it, an imitation firearm was pointed at him, and he was struck, kicked and stamped upon, YGW himself striking him. His mobile phone was taken and the attack was filmed and posted on Snapchat. He suffered a fractured eye socket, a wrist injury, a nosebleed and swollen nose and a chipped incisor. Later the same day the same group robbed complainant 2 of a valuable jacket at Smethwick Galton Station, a gun again being produced. On arrest YGW was in possession of a knife and the blue imitation firearm; he pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity to those possession offences and received a Referral Order. He pleaded guilty to the two robbery counts on the second day of the trial and was sentenced by HHJ Peter Cooke at Birmingham Crown Court on 14 November 2025 to 45 months' detention under section 250 of the Sentencing Act. His application for permission to appeal against sentence was referred to the Full Court by the Registrar.