Robber used machete to hold 6-year-old hostage

A 16-year-old who held a machete to a six-year-old boy's throat during a food-market robbery was jailed for two years.

But Cleveland Martin was granted leave to apply for home detention by Judge Gregory Ross in Palmerston North District Court on charges of kidnapping and aggravated robbery.

Martin would normally have been dealt with in the Youth Court, but his crimes were considered serious enough to warrant his remand to the district court for sentencing as an adult.

Martin, his face hidden by a bandanna took the boy hostage while demanding money from the parents.

Crown prosecutor Charlotte Patterson said a victim-impact report made for "disturbing reading".

The boy was still traumatised by his ordeal, nearly three months after the robbery being afraid to go to the toilet alone.

That Martin used a machete, had hidden his face, and spent the better part of the day planning the robbery were all aggravating factors, Ms Patterson said.

Judge Ross said yesterday that though Martin had no previous record, violent incidents in the months before the robbery were "an escalating trend".

- nzpa