A MAN who carjacked a mother with her children in the backseat, stabbed a man with a scalpel and threatened a chemist staffer before fleeing the scene with two energy drinks on a vicious crime spree across Newcastle has been sentenced to six years and six months in prison.
Shaun Michael Sinfield, 40, sat in the dock as Judge Roy Ellis handed down his sentence in Newcastle District Court on Thursday.
"These were a series of no doubt very frightening incidents for the victims concerned," Judge Ellis said.
"He expressed some remorse and contrition, but at the same time placed blame on the victims for not cooperating with his demands to take their motor vehicles.
"Indeed he went so far as calling his actions a 'cry for help' and described himself as the victim, which is suggestive of some considerable self-delusion on his part in terms of his conduct and the reasonable response of the victims to his violence and threats."
Sinfield already had a warrant out for his arrest in QLD when he terrorised his victims on December 8, last year.
Just before 6pm, he approached the driver of a car on Beaumont Street, telling him to "get out of the f----ing car" while threatening him with a scalpel.
In a tussle for the keys, the victim was stabbed in the upper chest and Sinfield tried to start the car with a key to a bike lock before a member of the public rushed over to help.
Sinfield fled the scene and headed to the nearby chemist. Once inside he used the same bloody scalpel to threaten a female staff member - eventually stealing two cans of energy drink and running back outside.
It's then that he carjacked a woman with her two children in the backseat, forcing her to drive him around while threatening her with the scalpel.
She managed to call Triple Zero but dropped her phone, eventually getting out of the car with her kids before Sinfield took off in it.
Police chased him later that same night and cornered him in a cul-de-sac, where he rammed two police cars and was arrested.
His sentence will expire in June, 2028.
