A JURY will today continue considering its verdicts in the case of a teenage girl accused of robbing two boys aged 11 and 14 of their bicycles at knifepoint.

Giving evidence on day three of her trial yesterday (Wednesday, January 31), Alicia Jane Sowerby, 19, alleged she confiscated the bikes in an attempt to get the children to apologise for calling her names.

She denied having a weapon on her during the incident on May 30.

Sowerby, of Alder Way, New Earswick, denies two charges of robbery and two of carrying a knife in public.

The jury has been in retirement for an hour so far.

Sowerby told York Crown Court events of that afternoon were a “blur” because she was drunk at the time.

She alleged she and a friend had approached children playing football. The friend had had a “conflict” with some of the children a few years earlier.

The 19-year-old, who broke down several times while she was giving evidence, claimed the boys called her names.

“I stupidly thought of confiscating one of their bikes until they apologised,” she alleged.

Sowerby claimed the 11 and 14-year-old boys had seen a bunch of Allen Keys she carried around with her to adjust her own bike and not a steak knife six to nine inches long, as prosecution witnesses have claimed.

The teenager alleged she took the bikes separately to a nearby field and kept watch over the second bike until a woman arrived and took it away. She believed the woman to be the mother of one of the boys and that the boys would get the bikes back.