Arrest after girl, 10, held at gunpoint

A 21-year-old man who allegedly held a 10-year-old girl at gunpoint during a New Plymouth dairy robbery at the weekend has turned himself in to police.

The man is alleged to robbed the Belt Road Dairy, on the corner of Devon Street West and Belt Road, on Saturday evening and would appear in New Plymouth District Court charged with aggravated robbery tomorrow, Detective Paul Barron said.

The man will remain in custody overnight and police will be opposing bail.

Mr Barron said the man's conscience got the better of him and he handed himself in to police late this afternoon.

Police had spoken with him and he was being co-operative, he said.

The man allegedly used a hand gun in the robbery and pointed it at the shop owner's 10-year-old daughter before walking away with over 100 packets of tobacco.

It was the second time in six months the girl was the victim of an armed robbery.

In May, five teenagers, two aged 17 and three aged 14, held up the dairy with a replica pistol.

The young girl and her eight-year-old brother watched as the robbers pointed the gun to their father's head and demanded money.

The girl's mother, who would not be named, told the Taranaki Daily News Saturday's robbery brought back the ordeal of the first robbery.

Her daughter wouldn't go to school for a week after the last robbery, she said.

"She didn't want to go outside; she didn't want to go anywhere."

The latest robbery was caught on a camera inside the store, police said.

- NZPA