A man has been sentenced to three years and nine months in jail over a bungled armed hold-up at a Lake Macquarie service station that lasted only seconds.
Judge Roy Ellis told Newcastle District Court on Tuesday that the sentence he was handing Nathan McBride was a "very lenient" but "appropriate outcome" given the 22-year-old's "history of substantiated traumas".
The court heard that McBride was driven to the BP service station at Valentine on the morning of October 5, 2022, before he ran into the store wearing a balaclava and carrying a large knife and pillow case.
The station attendant was safely secured behind the protected service desk and refused to come out or hand over any money.
But McBride confronted a woman who was in the store to use the ATM, holding his knife in the air and advancing on her.
She fell and dropped her wallet - which contained no cash - and fled unharmed.
McBride took the wallet, which was later recovered, and left the scene in the waiting vehicle.
In a victim impact statement read to the court on Tuesday, the woman said she thought he was going to kill her as he was approaching with the weapon.
"He took away my right to personal safety and I feel a strong sense of injustice about this," her statement said.
"I feel resentful that all my energy is spent on trying to heal from what he did to me that day."
McBride, who was on parole at the time, was arrested the following day.
Judge Ellis said the ordeal would have been "undoubtedly terrifying" for the woman.
During his judgement, Judge Ellis said McBride had spent most of his life in custody since the age of 14 and had only lived two months outside jail since he turned 18.
He said McBride was under the influence of illicit substances at the time of the hold-up, as he had a long history of self-medicating to cope with years of abuse in a variety of settings while growing up - including in the juvenile justice system.
"It is difficult to imagine a person who has been more abused than this man," Judge Ellis said.
"It's impossible for me, at this time, to remedy that abuse but it is a rather large factor [in sentencing].
"It is fair to say, the justice system seemingly has never done him any favours and if this is the first one, it's overdue."
Judge Ellis said, given the time McBride had spent in custody while growing up, it was "hard to imagine he's not institutionalised".
McBride's sentence was backdated to April, 2023. With a 21-month non-parole period, he will be first eligible for release next January.
