Suspended sentence for teenage robber (From Echo)

Suspended sentence for teenage robber

1:26pm Tuesday 17th January 2012 in County News

A teenage girl who held a pair of pliers to a terrified young girl’s throat on a train before robbing her of her mobile phone has been handed a nine-month suspended sentence.

Kala Lankin, 19, of no fixed abode, and another girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, boarded a London-bound train at Chalkwell on July 19 last year.

Making their way through the carriages, they came across their 17-year-old victim.

Det Con David Bishop, the investigating officer from British Transport Police (BTP), said: “Lankin approached the girl before suddenly pulling out a pair of pliers and holding them to her throat.

“She demanded the victim hand over her mobile phone, forcing the pliers against her until the victim eventually became so scared that she complied with Lankin’s demands.”

Despite her ordeal, the victim was able to alert rail staff who called police and an officer who recognised Lankin from a description given by the victim was able to make an arrest at the scene.

At an earlier hearing in July, Lankin pleaded guilty to one count of robbery. At Basildon Crown Court on Monday(16 January) the time she spent remanded in custody was taken in account and she was sentenced to nine months’ detention in a young offenders' institute, which will be suspended for 18 months.