A robbery victim says he sometimes bursts into tears "without any obvious reason" after armed teenagers lured him to a meeting through a dating website and stole from him.
In a victim impact statement, the man told the ACT Supreme Court he had feared he would be killed when a knife was pointed at him during the November 2020 incident in Hawker.
He detailed the lasting effects of the frightening episode on him as a judge recently spared one of the robbers, Lachlan Robert Wilson, further time behind bars.
Sentencing remarks, published on Friday, show Justice David Mossop sentenced Wilson to nine months in jail after the 19-year-old pleaded guilty to an aggravated robbery charge.
The sentence was backdated to account for the 32 days Wilson had spent in custody before being granted bail, with the balance of the jail term suspended.
In sentencing, Justice Mossop said the victim had used an internet dating site, previously identified as squirt.org, to exchange messages with someone who initially said they were 18 years old.
The user, "youngboihorny", later told the victim they were only 15.
"The victim thought he was being 'set up' and agreed to meet the user to expose the person doing so," Justice Mossop wrote in his remarks.
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Arrangements were made for the victim to attend a unit complex, where he was confronted by Wilson and a boy who cannot be named because he was under 18.
"The young co-offender threatened the victim with a steak knife and became verbally aggressive towards the victim, calling him a paedophile," Justice Mossop said.
"The victim described that [Wilson] appeared to be 'taking his lead' from the young co-offender, and also began to call him a paedophile."
Both robbers demanded money from the victim, but the man, aged in his 60s, did not have any cash.
The pair therefore walked him to an ATM at the Hawker shops, where he withdrew $100, leaving just $17 in his account, and gave it to them.
Wilson subsequently stole a bottle opener from the victim's car, while his co-offender told the victim he would contact him within a week to collect a further $200.
"The young co-offender also made further threats to expose the victim as a paedophile if further money was not paid," Justice Mossop said.
The victim drove from the scene to Belconnen Police Station and reported the robbery, resulting in Wilson being arrested two days later.
Justice Mossop said the 19-year-old had expressed remorse since then, having described his actions as "the wrong thing to do".
The judge also noted the impacts of the incident on the victim, saying the man had gone to stay with relatives interstate because he had been too scared to return to his own home.
"He reports suffering from anxiety, bursting into tears without any obvious reason and leaving the house as little as possible," Justice Mossop said.
"The offenders' conduct has had a lasting effect on the victim, who feels paranoid about being robbed again.
"He is receiving psychological treatment to enable him to move on from the incident."
Character references written in support of Wilson told the court he was ordinarily gentle and sensitive, among many other positive things.
He was, however, "very impressionable and lacking in maturity", according to his mother.
Justice Mossop noted this as he said the evidence in this case was consistent with Wilson being "a follower rather than a leader".
"He was only just an adult at the time of the offending," the judge said.
"Plainly, the fact that he is a young man is a significant consideration having regard to the potential to engage in serious criminal conduct without fully appreciating its gravity or its consequences."
In light of factors like Wilson's lack of previous criminal history and the progress he had already made towards rehabilitation, which included being appropriately medicated for mental health issues, Justice Mossop found it would be "counter-productive" to put the 19-year-old back behind bars.
The judge therefore suspended the rest of Wilson's jail sentence, attached a 12-month good behaviour order, and ordered the 19-year-old to pay $50 in reparations to the victim.
