Boy allegedly robbed of iPhone outside Oxford McDonald's

Aaron Clarke, then 17-years-old but now 20, is one of three accused of involvement in the robbery of two teenagers on dates a day apart in July 2020.

All three deny wrongdoing.

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On Monday (September 11), jurors at Oxford Crown Court heard that a then 14-year-old boy, who cannot be identified as he is still a youth, was on each occasion the one who demanded the group’s victims hand over their phones.

They were threatened with warnings that the boy had a ‘shank’, street slang for a knife, it was said.

Opening the Crown’s case, prosecutor Saul Herman said that Clarke’s phone was downloaded by the police following his arrest.

Within hours of the first alleged robbery, on July 3, 2020, Clarke was said to have sent a message to a young woman telling her of the events of the afternoon.

“We robbed some yutes [youths] today for an iPhone,” it was claimed he had written. They had gone up to ‘six yutes’ and ‘scared TF [the f***] out of them’.

He added: “Think we doing it again tomorrow for [an] iPhone X.”

Oxford Crown Court, where the trial is being heard Picture: Ed Nix (Image: Oxford Mail)

The second alleged robbery was said to have been committed not on July 4 but the following day, when the youngest defendant allegedly pushed another boy against a shop window and warned him: “I’ll back out the shank.”

He put his hand behind his back as if to imply he was reaching for a knife, it was said, adding the warning: “Give me the phone or I’ll stab you in the chest.

As with the alleged robbery two days earlier in Cornmarket, the group was said to have demanded the pin to his phone.

The alleged victim on July 5 claimed not to remember the code.

Mr Herman suggested that the first alleged victim had been followed from the Westgate shopping centre to Cornmarket Street, where he was ordered to hand over his phone after some of his friends had disappeared into McDonald’s.

One of the three defendants, Hayden Field, then 15, was said to have swapped his ‘slider’-style sandals for a pair of trainers before the robbery.

The prosecutor noted: “You don’t rob someone in your flip-flops.”

Two of the first complainant’s friends gave chase, catching up with the alleged robbers near the Radcliffe Camera.

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They demanded the phone back and, while Youth A allegedly told the fresh-faced have-a-go-hero to ‘turn his pockets or he would shank him’ the friend stood his ground and got the phone back.

During his police interview, jurors were told, Clarke denied involvement in the robbery but accepted his presence at the scene.

Prior to the second alleged robbery, on July 5, he suggested that Youth A asked Field whether they should ‘stain them’, slang for robbery.

Field told officers that he ‘wasn’t involved and that’s all I wish to say’. Regarding the incident on July 3, he said his only involvement was ‘when the guy asked for his phone back […] I looked at whoever took the phone and I said to them, give them back the phone, what you’re doing is not right’.

Youth A answered ‘no comment’ during his interview, the jury was told.

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Prosecuting, Mr Herman said: “The prosecution say that all three of these defendants were involved with the robberies in counts one and three and that [Youth A] was responsible for trying to rob [the complainant] in count three.”

Youth A, of north west London, denies robbery and attempted robbery.

Aaron Clarke, of Dene Road, Oxford, and Hayden Field, of no fixed address, deny robbery.

The trial continues.