9:37am Wednesday 8th September 2010
By Richard Catton
AN ARMED robber who threatened a pregnant bank cashier with a knife because he wanted to go back to prison has been jailed indefinitely.
Anthony Roy Revill, 35, brought terror to The Halifax in Parliament Street earlier this year when he entered brandishing a kitchen knife and snatched £1,400 from the pregnant member of staff.
York Crown Court heard the woman had been “paralysed with fear” for half an hour and needed treatment at York Hospital.
The court heard Revill, of Lumley Gardens, Gateshead, wanted to return to prison because he felt he had not been punished enough for offences he committed in 1998.
The Recorder of York, Judge Stephen Ashurst, described Revill’s behaviour as “bizarre”.
Alan Mitcheson, for the prosecution, said Revill had served four year in prison after sexually abusing mental patients at an East Yorkshire care home. Mr Mitcheson said: “It seems the motivation of the offence (in York) is his desire to be imprisoned further. He regarded a four year sentence as insufficient imprisonment.”
On April 28 this year, Revill left a Newcastle hospital where he was receiving treatment, before getting a train to York with the intention of carrying out a robbery.
On arriving in the city he attended mass in a local church before making his way to the busy building society at lunchtime.
Mr Mitcheson said: “He approached a woman standing at the help desk, produced the knife and told her to move.
“Having persuaded the first assistant to move out of the way he approached a cashier, who was pregnant at the time, and demanded cash from her.
“The sight of the man with a knife paralysed her with fear and she was unable to respond.”
The woman eventually handed Revill the cash after a colleague persuaded her to act.
Revill was followed out of the branch by a customer who kept police informed of his whereabouts and Revill was eventually arrested on Lendal Bridge.
In mitigation, the court was told Revill had said he had been hearing voices in his head telling him to harm a woman, and had immediately sought medical help and was put on medication.
The court heard he had a “very unusual sense of responsibility and wanted to take himself off the streets”.
Before passing sentence, Judge Ashurst told Revill: “You made your way to the Halifax branch in the city of York where you brought terror to the staff and customers.
“I am told that you would be happy to receive a long custodial sentence; what I have to ensure is I’m not being manipulated by someone in the dock.”
He told Revill there had been problems with his mental health and that he presented a significant risk of committing further offences.
Sentencing him to an indefinite length of time in prison, Judge Ashurst told him that his “bizarre behaviour presents a risk of serious harm to the public”.
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