Knifeman admits robberies

A knifeman has admitted robbing four people at knifepoint in three days in Lowestoft.

Courtney Absalom committed three armed robberies last month, including daylight attacks in a small seafront shop and a town centre car park.

Yesterday, he pleaded guilty to the robberies and a fourth charge of carrying a knife in public at Ipswich Crown Court.

On Sunday June 22, Absolom, 34, held a knife to the face of a 20-year-old shop assistant at Joe's Newsagents in Pier Terrace and demanded that she hand over cash from the till. He got away with about £30 in cash before fleeing from the shop at about 4pm.

The following day, the 34-year-old carried out a second daytime attack and threatened a pensioner with a knife in the Britten Centre multi storey car park in the town centre.

The 73-year-old woman was walking to her car at about 1.30pm when he threatened her with a kitchen knife and stole her handbag.

Absalom, who is of no fixed abode, robbed two more people at knifepoint as they waited for their train to pull away from Lowestoft railway station on the evening of Tuesday 24.

The 20-year-old man and a woman aged 21 were on a train at about 8pm when Absalom walked on board, threatened them with a knife and ordered them to hand over their wallets, which were later found without money in the Hervery Street area of Lowestoft.

He was finally arrested on the Wednesday when police found him in the Sparrow Nest gardens, off Yarmouth Road, carrying a 12” kitchen knife.

Matthew Gowan, defending, said that although Absalom has spent time in prison in the past for burglary, these violent offences were “wildly out of character for a man seen as a burglar.”

Judge Neil McKittrick yesterdayadjourned sentencing to allow for reports to be made and Absalom, who has been in custody since his appearance at Lowestoft magistrates court on June 27, will be remanded until he returns to Ipswich Crown Court for sentencing next month.