'Do you want to die?': Knife robber in Joker face paint is jailed after threatening Morrisons staff in Jarrow
Peter Braithwaite, painted as The Joker, inside the Morrisons in Jarrow's Viking Centre, where a female worker later told Newcastle Crown Court she believed she was about to be stabbed.CCTV footage of Peter Braithwaite wheeling a trolley of stolen groceries out of the store — he was later arrested at his nearby home, where police also seized the knife.
Peter Braithwaite, 31, of Wilkinson Court Tower, Jarrow, was jailed for 40 months at Newcastle Crown Court after pleading guilty to robbery at his local Morrisons. He had loaded a trolley with groceries, winked at staff who challenged him, then pulled out a six-inch folding knife when a security guard stepped in. CCTV footage showed him wheeling the trolley through the exit and along the street to his nearby home, where police arrested him and seized both the knife and the stolen goods.
Prosecutor Kevin Wardlaw told the court Braithwaite directed the blade at staff, who retreated in fear.
A female worker's victim impact statement said: 'He looked so frightening, his eyes were bulging — I believed I was going to be stabbed.'
She told the court she now fears dealing with male shoplifters and worries about the impact the ordeal had on children in the store.
