A 16-YEAR-OLD boy with a gun strapped to his back threatened to shoot another teenager unless he handed over his mobile phone, a court heard.
Jack East then robbed another phone belonging to the girlfriend of his 16-year-old victim Robert Scott and tried to bribe her into performing a sex act on him to get it back.
And when 15-year-old Sophie Miller, who was 14 at the time, burst into t
ears and refused, he tried to get her friend Jessica Legwood to do it instead.
East, of Lopham Street, Burngreave, admits robbing both Robert and Sophie of their mobile phones but denies possessing a firearm with intent.
Sheffield Crown Court heard Robert was walking through Burngreave with Sophie, Jessica, and another friend, Richard Evans, on October 30 when East grabbed Robert by the shoulder.
Rachael Harrison, prosecuting, said East challenged him about comments he believed Robert made about his mother on the Bebo social networking website, pulling him into the stairwell of flats in Verdon Street.
In police interviews, Robert said: "He got me in the corner and said, 'Give me your phone or I'll get my gun out on you'.
"I could see the outline of a gun on his back – the strap across his shoulder and down his back.
"I could see the shape of the gun – the handle of it and the circle where the trigger is. It looked like a pistol."
He said that East showed him pictures on his own mobile phone portraying him pointing and holding a gun.
The court heard East then demanded Sophie's mobile, threatening: "You know what will happen if you don't give me your phone."
In her police interview, Sophie said: "Rob and Richard told me not to give it to him but I just thought what if he does? That's going to be on my conscience.
"I just gave it him straight away because I didn't want anyone to get hurt."
She said she then felt like she had "no choice" but to go into the stairwell with East, where he told her she could get her phone back if she performed a sex act on him.
Sophie said she refused and then Jessica came inside and he asked her to do the same.
In her police interview Jessica said: "I burst out crying because she is my best friend and I would do anything for her but I wasn't going to touch him because it wasn't right."
In cross-examination via video link, both girls admitted that they did not see the gun on East's back.
The trial continues.
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