“Deranged” man who robbed teenager at knifepoint in Scarborough jailed for 33 months

James Sykes, 38, came across the terrified youngster in the street just before midnight and held a knife to this throat demanding his car keys, York Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor Caroline Abraham said the named victim was at a party in Granville Square and had just stepped outside the house to get his coat from his car when he saw a man walking towards him with what appeared to be two kitchen knives.

“The male produced a large knife and demanded (the victim’s) car keys,” said Ms Abraham.

“(The victim) told him he didn’t have the keys (whereupon) the male took one of the knives and pointed it at (the victim’s) throat.”

The blade was just inches from the victim’s neck, said Ms Abraham.

The teenager thought he was going to be stabbed as Sykes again demanded the car keys while holding the knife to his throat, but the victim managed to get away and went back inside the house.

“(Sykes) ran away and as he did so, a witness heard a loud noise,” added Ms Abraham.

“The victim discovered that his offside tyre had been punctured as if it had been stabbed.”

About 30 minutes later, at 12.30am, police found Sykes a short distance away, standing on the roof of an apartment block on the Esplanade.

“The defendant was displaying erratic behaviour, throwing roof tiles towards the officers and threatening to take his own life,” said Ms Abraham.

The court heard that at one point, Sykes was standing naked under scaffolding outside the flats.

He was eventually coaxed down, arrested and taken to hospital where he started berating a named man and spat in his face.

He was promptly escorted to the police vehicle but, once inside, he deliberately soiled the back of the van.

He was charged with multiple offences including attempted robbery, two counts of criminal damage, carrying a blade, common assault and threatening the teenager with a knife.

He was also charged with attempting to rob a named female and threatening her with a knife.

He ultimately admitted attempting to rob the teenage boy, assaulting the man at hospital and damaging the car tyre and the police van.

He denied all the other allegations and these pleas were accepted by the prosecution.

The offences he admitted, which occurred in September last year, were in breach of a 20-week suspended prison sentence imposed at Leeds Crown Court in August 2021 for assaulting an emergency worker and criminal damage.

Sykes appeared for sentence via video link today after being remanded in custody.

The court heard that the teenage robbery victim identified Sykes in an ID parade in February.

Sykes later admitted attempted robbery on the day his trial was due to start.

Ms Abraham said that Sykes had six previous convictions for offences including public disorder and carrying a blade.

In a statement read out in court, the teenage victim said he had been left feeling “anxious and scared to go out”.

“He has flashbacks and it has affected his ability to concentrate at school,” said Ms Abraham.

Defence barrister Philip Morris said that Sykes had psychological problems which were largely self-inflicted by drink and drug abuse.

“He acknowledges that the root to his evil seems to be an excessive reliance on alcohol,” added Mr Morris.

“That was the root of his behaviour on this particular evening.”

He said that Sykes, who had been living in Leeds, planned to return to live with his mother in Scarborough and there was a flat in the Esplanade that should be available to him upon his eventual release from prison.

Judge Sean Morris, the Recorder of York, told Sykes: “To hold a knife to a young man’s throat would have been an absolutely terrifying experience for that young man.

“He didn’t know (if) you were going to push it into his neck. You then go off and stab his car tyre. When arrested, you were acting in a deranged fashion.”

He described Sykes’s soiling of the police van as a “filthy act of criminal damage in a police vehicle which no doubt had to be taken off the road and deep-cleaned”.

Sykes, of Weavers Close, Morley, was jailed for two years and nine months. The judge recorded not-guilty verdicts on the matters Sykes denied.