A YOUNG robber who terrified two teenagers at knifepoint was jailed yesterday.

Drug addict Kevin Conway, 19, told his young victims it was better to rob them than an old lady, Teesside Crown Court heard.

The court was told Conway had held one of the Middlesbrough teenagers round the neck, pulled out a Stanley knife blade and demanded money.

Prosecuting, Helen Gamble, said Conway robbed them of £17 cash and a pair of trainers and then shook hands with them to try to make out there was nothing wrong.

Yesterday, Conway, of Central Mews, Middlesbrough, admitted robbery and was sent to a young offenders institution for three-and-a-half-years.

Judge John Walford told him: "To confront two young people in broad daylight in the centre of Middlesbrough with a knife and rob them is appalling, whatever the underlying reasons.

"The fact that you were a drug addict, through your own choice, can never be either a mitigation or justification for committing this sort of serious offence."

Ian West, for Conway, said the offence was not planned and was out of character.

He said Conway was a drug addict who had, up to that point, fed his habit through petty shoplifting. Mr West said: "It was an aggravated form of bullying. He is very sorry about what he did."