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‘Nice guy’ teen is locked away following knifepoint robbery in Bootham

7:44am Saturday 28th January 2012

A TEENAGER with a promising future has been put behind bars for his role in the knifepoint robbery of a cyclist in York.

Kafula Bwalya was one of three friends given youth detention sentences after they confronted 23-year-old Robert Wannop in Bootham last summer when he rode out to get a takeaway.

Bwalya, 18, of Kingsway North, told Mr Wannop: “You’re lucky I’m such a nice guy,” while carrying the knife by his side as the other two robbers, a 16-year-old from central York and a 17-year-old from south York – neither of whom can be named for legal reasons – rifled through Mr Wannop’s wallet.

Bwalya, who York Crown Court heard had “worked hard” to fulfil his ambition of going to university, had denied robbery and possession of an offensive weapon following the crime last June, but was convicted earlier this month.

He was sentenced to 21 months’ detention in a young offenders’ institution for robbery, with a 12-month sentence for the knife offence running alongside.

The 17-year-old admitted both the same charges and received two years’ detention and training for robbery and a concurrent 12-month term for possessing the weapon. The 16-year-old, who pleaded guilty to robbery, was sentenced to 18 months’ detention and training.

Bwalya’s trial heard that, before the robbery, Mr Wannop saw the group, who had been drinking, arguing with another man. They later approached him, brandished a knife and told him: “We will have everything – empty your pockets”.

Katherine Robinson, defending Bwalya, said: “He has made something of his life already by qualifying as a fitness instructor and has done everything he can to better himself, achieving a great deal in his young life.

“Whatever his role was, he accepts he should not have been out at night with other people with knives and engaging in that sort of behaviour.

“It is an aberration on an otherwise impeccable childhood and adolescence.”

Defence barristers acting for the other two teenagers said they both realised they had let down their families and had admitted their crimes.

The Recorder of York, Judge Stephen Ashurst, told Bwalya he had read about his character and prospects for the future with “a heavy heart”.

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