Student thief gets university offer

Benjamin Barton, captured on CCTV during the raid.

A public schoolboy who committed armed robbery after becoming convinced that he had failed his A Levels had an unconditional offer to the University of Plymouth, it has emerged today.

Benjamin Barton, who was sentenced at Exeter Crown Court to three years and eight months at a young offender's institute, was certain that his exams had gone badly and that would not get a place at university.

This led to 'stress and anxiety,' which developed into a 'catastrophic brainstorm' that led to his crimes, according to his lawyer.

The then-eighteen year old armed himself with a gun, put on dark glasses and a scarf and entered Cooper's Jewellers in Barnstaple, where David Bruce, the shop's elderly owner, was working alone.

Barton placed an M&S bag for life on the counter and ordered Mr Bruce to 'put the cash inside,' to which the seventy-one year old martial arts expert replied 'You've picked on the wrong man'

Mr Bruce pretended to walk towards a safe at the back of the shop, but instead grabbed a baseball bat and struck out at Barton, hitting him on the head, wrist and shoulder as he bundled the youth out of the store.

The court heard that during the struggle Barton pulled out the gun and pointed it into Mr Bruce's face.

The weapon went off twice as the shop owner hit the boy, but fired off blank rounds.

Later it emerged that the round had fallen off in the shop, only moments earlier.

Mrs Bruce's daughter in law was returning to the shop at the time, and after hearing loud bangs was terrified that her father in law had been shot dead.

At the time, Mr Bruce shared her fear.

"I feared for my life. I honestly believed it was a real gun. I thought I was dead. I believe I was going to found in a pool of blood", he said in a statement.

Detectives, who were later praised by the judge for their 'astute work' identified Barton by the M&S bag he was carrying, which he had recently purchased.

Soon afterwards, the student went with his grandfather to the local police station.

He initially denied that he was the would-be robber but soon made a full admission, stating that he had bought the weapon two years earlier and recently bought the mark for the pre-planned raid.

Richard Crabb, his defending lawyer, argued that the incident was part of a 'fantasy world' fuelled by video games and cannabis.

"On any view it was an inexplicable behaviour", he said. "He comes from a good home, good family.

"He felt his private education was wasted and he would let down his mother. He hit self-destruction. It was a doomed enterprise."