A YOUNG man, who along with his four friends formed an armed crew that terrorised businesses across the Hunter during a three-day crime spree in early 2022, has been jailed for a maximum of 11 years in Newcastle District Court.
Blake Stanton, now 20, robbed a cleaner at the Blackbutt Hotel with a large knife and broke into a number of business at Anna Bay, Salt Ash and Jesmond, while other members of the group attempted to hold up a service station and stabbed a supermarket owner in the stomach during an armed robbery before they all became the target of Strike Force Conge detectives.
The five man crew, which consisted of Stanton, ringleader Aaron Creighton, Trae Reid, Victor Russell and Murrinjii Griffiths, were all arrested in February last year and refused bail.
And a few weeks later, while they were withdrawing from drugs and locked down in a cell together due to COVID-19 protocols, Stanton and Creighton went on a "rampage" inside Parklea Correctional Centre, pulling jail-made weapons on three corrective services staff, smashing property and starting four fires.
The pair threatened to kill prison guards and barricaded themselves inside the wing before burning furniture and rubbish.
"Do you want to make it home to see your family?" Stanton asked one female prison guard, who pleaded with him not to hurt her.
The men had to be detained by specialist incident response and riot squad teams who fired projectiles and gas grenades to put a stop to the siege.
Stanton, who pleaded guilty to a string of offences relating to the crime spree and jail rampage, was on Friday jailed for a maximum of 11 years, with a non-parole period of six years.
With time served, he will be eligible for parole in April, 2028.
Stanton was not with the group on January 17 last year when the other four pulled up outside the BP service station at Bennetts Green in a stolen car.
One of the men convinced the console operator to let him in, but then stood in the doorway while the rest of the crew stormed in and began making threats.
The console operator fled out the back into a locked room and triggered the alarm and the men fled empty handed.
The next night, during the space of about an hour, the group - which now included Stanton - broke into the Anna Bay Hot Bread Shop, two service stations at Salt Ash and the Jesmond post office before they held up a cleaner as he arrived for work at the Blackbutt Hotel at 4am.
The cleaner got out of his car and was confronted by three men, one armed with a knife, who took his wallet, phone and watch and then marched him inside where they tried unsuccessfully to open the cash registers and ATM.
It was the next morning that Creighton, Griffiths and Reid held up the Spar Express supermarket at Morpeth.
Creighton was armed with a knife and jumped across the counter, pointing the knife at the owner's stomach and demanding money.
They took the cash drawers, but then Creighton barked "where is the rest of the money?"
When the owner replied "that's all I got", Creighton punched him twice in the face and stabbed him in the stomach. The men fled and the supermarket owner was taken to hospital.
Stanton, Creighton and Russell were arrested in February after a police pursuit at Maryland.
Reid and Griffiths were arrested a few days later.
Russell was in March ordered to serve a 14-month intensive corrections order for his role in a robbery, while Creighton, Reid and Griffiths will be sentenced over the next few months.
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