Trial hears of robbery victims’ ‘resistance’
Small episodes of bravery and resistance among bar patrons and staff in the face of masked and armed raiders emerged from the evidence in the Sideline Bar robbery trial.
The robbers – armed with a rifle and a pistol and wearing balaclavas – escaped the pub with $4545 in cash from bar takings and pokie machines, packed into clear plastic bank bags.
By the time they ran out to the getaway car in the carpark in Stanmore Road soon after 11pm on November 7, 2012, resistance had set in amongst the four patrons and the two hotel staff who were still present.
It is the second day of the five-day Christchurch District Court trial of Dallas Edwards, aged 25, and Jackson Manson, aged 23, on a joint charge of aggravated robbery. The trial is before Judge Paul Kellar and a jury.
The scene inside the Stanmore Road pub during the 10-minutes of the robbery has been described in detail by some of those who were held at gunpoint.
• Sam Joseph Craigie was at the pub for a drink, with his partner. When the two armed men came in at closing time and the robbery began, he stepped in front of his partner and the surveillance video shows him staying there in the face of the robbers.
“There was some colourful language,” he told the court. “They said, ‘Don’t go into your pockets for your cellphones or I’ll shoot you’.”
• When a robber ordered bartender Alesha Jennifer McConnell – he called her “Pretty Face” – to let them out the back door, bar manager Doris Cecillia Rocca stepped in. She said she was the one with the key, and she went with them to let them out to the carpark.
• A patron named Baldy wanted to pursue the robbers when they made their getaway in a waiting car but the bar manager talked him out of it. She pointed out they had guns.
• Doris Rocca wanted to confirm her suspicion that beneath the balaclavas, the robbers were Maori or Pacific Islanders.
As they walked past her to leave, she said, “Ka pai.”
She believed it meant, “Thank you”, and she was thanking them for letting her go and not hurting anyone. She also wanted to see if they would respond, and one of them did, although she did not understand what he said.
The trial continued with evidence about a car number plate with black plastic cable ties attached being found on North Avon Road near the exit from the pub carpark. The Crown says the number plate had belonged to the sister of Edwards’ partner.
The court was told about Edwards having a plastic coin bag in the pocket of the shorts he was wearing when he was arrested two days after the robbery.
The trial is continuing.
Category: News
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