A NIGHT worker was left traumatised after armed robbers confronted him in a Carlisle alleyway, with one holding a samurai sword to his face.

The man’s terrifying ordeal – which happened at 6am as he returned home from working a night shift – was described at Carlisle Crown Court as the two criminals responsible were sentenced.

Ryan Worby, 23, and his accomplice Alife McIntosh, 21, both admitted robbery. Worby, who wielded the sword, also pleaded guilty to possessing an offensive weapon.

Prosecutor Tom Farr described what happened.

The victim was listening to music through his headphones as he made his way home on March 22, walking into the cut between Osborne Avenue and Priory Road.

Feeling a tap on his shoulder, he turned around - and was confronted by Worby, sword in hand.

“Give me everything you’ve got,” the defendant told him. McIntosh was standing nearby, holding either an axe or a length of wood. As he demanded the goods, Worby held the sword near to the man’s neck and chest area.

The robbers then told the man to empty his pockets, and to hand over his rucksack as Worby appeared to get angry. At one point, the sword was put against the victim’s face.

In an impact statement, the man later spoke of the effect of the robbery, with him struggling to sleep for more than three or four hours and how he was left feeling tense at work and anxious and vulnerable.

He had also lost weight.

Mark Shepherd, for Worby, said the robbery showed the corrosive effect of drugs, and the addiction that afflicts the defendant.

At the age of 23, that addiction was so bad, according to a probation worker, that Worby risked death if he had not started an immediate detoxification. In prison, he had become clean of drugs.

“He has started to make progress in custody,” said the lawyer, adding that the defendant was also maturing and beginning to think of other people.

Andrew Evans, for McIntosh, said he had grown up witnessing the entrenched drug addiction of his parents and he had been in care. At 17, he was diagnosed with ADHD, and his stepfather died because of drugs.

More recently, his mother had suffered “life-changing” injuries in a traffic accident and McIntosh was helping with her care. Now a father himself, the defendant was “desperate” to break the cycle of crime.

“This is a serious offence of robbery,” said Judge Nicholas Barker.

He said both defendants were jointly responsible for the robbery, and both knew why a sword was brought to that alleyway. In statements, both defendants had referred to “taking excessive drugs” that night.

“The purpose of the robbery was to obtain [money] to buy drugs and become further intoxicated,” said the judge, though he acknowledged the problems each defendant faced and the “tragic” upbringing of McIntosh, whose record was appalling.

Judge Barker added: "You demanded everything he had and Worby, in a chilling way, gestured, placing the sword against [the victim's] face.

"It's no surprise... that he continues to suffer anxiety and fearfulness."

He jailed Worby, of Newcastle Street, Carlisle, for 45 months and McIntosh, of Raffles Avenue, Carlisle, for 46 months.