A SUPERMARKET owner still has nightmares after a crew of men armed with a knife stormed his store and stabbed him in the stomach during a three-day crime spree terrorising Hunter businesses.
The ringleader of the group, Aaron Creighton, fronted Newcastle District Court for a sentence hearing on Friday.
The owner of the Spar Express supermarket in Morpeth was viciously attacked during an armed robbery on January 19, last year, and underwent surgery for a stab wound to his stomach.
The victim and his wife were in court on Friday, and a statement from him was handed up to the court detailing the impacts he was still grappling with.
The Crown prosecutor told the court the victim had been hospitalised for two days, had to see a physiologist, and had to ease back into work.
"But, 17 months on from the offence, [he] comments that he still does not work as long hours as he previously did, and he still continues to have nightmares about the robbery," she said.
Creighton, now 23, was flanked by two other men when they held up the Spar Express.
"He was the dominant participant of the three ... he was the one that jumped cross the counter, who produced the knife, who made all the demands for money," the Crown prosecutor said.
According to court documents, Creighton barked "where is the rest of the money?", and when the owner replied "that's all I got", he punched him twice in the head and stabbed him in the stomach.
The attack came at the end of a three-day spree, which saw a group of men pull up at the BP service station at Bennetts Green in a stolen car early on January 17.
The group threatened the console operator, but he fled to a locked room and triggered the alarm, and the assailants fled empty-handed.
Creighton, and others, held up a cleaner at knifepoint at the Blackbutt Hotel, and also broke into the Anna Bay Hot Bread Shop, two service stations, and the Jesmond post office in the lead-up to the Morpeth stabbing.
Creighton also admitted to joyriding in a stolen Toyota Rav4, Mercedes, and Subaru Liberty.
He and four other men were arrested by Strike Force Conge detectives from the Robbery and Serious Crime Squad, set up to investigate the spate of break-ins and robberies in the Hunter in early 2022.
Defence barrister William Buxton handed up a specialist report detailing significant trauma in Creighton's background and his complex medical conditions.
Judge Peter McGrath delayed handing down his sentence for the five charges, with some others to be taken into account, and ordered Creighton remain behind bars in the meantime.
"It's going to take a lengthy time, there's a lot I've got to go through," he said.
He told the supermarket store owner it was clear he had suffered psychologically, physically and financially.
"It's a very good reminder of the typical - but the terrible - effects that such an offence can have on someone such as yourself," Judge McGrath said.
Creighton will also be sentenced for going on a rampage with Blake Stanton - who was one of the men arrested in connection with the crime spree - while they were locked up in Parklea Correctional Centre.
He has pleaded guilty to damaging property by fire, in company, at the jail; as well as three counts of using an offensive weapon with the intent to commit an indictable offence, in company, in relation to a correctional officer.
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