A man returning home with his shopping was robbed by two males who then mocked him by eating some of his stolen food in front of him, a court has heard. A judge said Dylan Fuller and his 16-year-old accomplice had been “lurking” in Swansea’s High Street when they spotted their victim and took the opportunity to rob him.
Swansea Crown Court heard former law and politics student Fuller had been self-medicating for his mental health issues with alcohol and so-called street Valium tablets at the time of the robbery, and that it happened while the defendant was being investigated for allegedly assaulting a shop worker. Sending the 25-year-old to prison a judge told him that people were going to be allowed to walk the streets of Swansea without people like him making “no-go areas”.
Francesca Parry, prosecuting, told the court that at 10.20pm on October 4 this year the complainant in the case was walking home along High Street with a bag of groceries he had just purchased from a convenience store in Llangyfelach Street. She said as he walked in the direction of the town centre Fuller and the youth – who cannot be named due to his age – emerged from the doorway where they had been sat and approached him from behind. Fuller grabbed the victim’s shopping bag and pulled it from his hand while telling him: “It’s not yours any more – just leave”. The youth threatened to stab the man if he didn’t walk away.
The court heard the robbers walked off towards the High Street railway station where they sat at tables and chairs outside the Grand Hotel. The complainant in the case carefully approached the pair who began laughing and joking about the robbery and eating food items from the stolen bag.
The police were alerted and officers found the defendants in the nearby multi-storey car park still carrying the stolen shopping. In his interview Fuller admitted taking the bag but said he could not remember whose idea it had been or why they had done it. He also told officers he had mental health issues and self-medicated with street Valium and alcohol, and that on the day in question he had consumed Valium and around 10 drinks.
In an impact statement read to the court by the prosecutor the victim said nothing like the robbery had ever happened to him before and he was “completely shocked” by the incident. He said he still did his shopping at the same Family Choice shop but now only did so in daylight and took a different route home, and he said he felt anxious about going out and found himself constantly looking over his shoulder. For the latest court reports sign up to our crime newsletter here.
Dylan Fuller, of Hanover Street, Swansea, had previously pleaded guilty to a joint charge of robbery when he appeared in the dock for sentencing. He has one previous conviction for one offence of battery, an incident which had seen him punching a taxi marshal and for which he was fined £80 by magistrates just three days before the street robbery. At the time of the robbery he was on police bail having been arrested on suspicion of assault occasioning actual bodily harm (ABH) following an incident involving an attack on a shop worker. The court heard the ABH matter had not yet been charged.
Amelia Pike, for Fuller, said there was a “significant background” of mental health issues and substance misuse in the defendant’s life, and that they were her instructions that the defendant had been diagnosed with anxiety and manic depression. She said 2024 had been an “extremely difficult” year for the defendant who experienced a number of issues including the death of a friend, medical concerns with this pregnant partner, and a period of homelessness, and she said that in the run up to the robbery Fuller had been unable to get his usual medication. The barrister said it was accepted that the case crossed the custody threshold but she would invite the court to find there was a realistic prospect of rehabilitation now her client was correctly medicated and to consider suspending the sentence.
Judge Huw Rees said he had read that Fuller went to Swansea University to study law and politics but did not complete the course and said it was clear the defendant was an intelligent young man who had benefitted from an education, something which not everyone had done.
He said on the night in question the defendant and the youth had been “lurking around the top end of High Street” when they took their opportunity to rob an innocent passing man of his shopping and had then “rubbed salt into the wound” by eating some of the stolen food in front of the victim.
The judge said he had read the thorough pre-sentence report in the case where the defendant had expressed remorse and an understanding of the impact of the robbery on the victim and had described how the incident “makes me look like a scumbag”. The judge said those words from the defendant “resonate truthfully” and added: “People are going to be allowed to walk the streets of Swansea at 10.20pm at night without people like you making parts of this city a no-go area”.
With a one-third discount for his guilty plea Fuller was sentenced to 16 months in prison. He will serve up to half that sentence in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community. The court heard the co-defendant had been dealt with separately at Swansea Youth Court.
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