Intruder armed with knife and zip ties bursts into teen's bedroom

A man armed with a knife and zip ties burst into a teenager's bedroom demanding money, a court heard. Archie Warren fled with a wallet containing more than £800 but was found by the victim's mother, who he later accused of assaulting him.

A judge called the case “bizarre, to say the least” and said Warren's reference to not trusting his friends during the raid suggested he had been tipped off that the teenager had a large sum of cash in the house. The 22-year-old was sentenced to four years in prison.

Georgia Donohue, prosecuting, told Swansea Crown Court that at around 5.30pm on March 13, the 18-year-old victim was in the bedroom of his Llanelli home when Warren entered holding a switchblade knife. The defendant began demanding money from the teenager, asking where his “stash” was. The court heard the young man said he had no money and began opening his cupboard drawers in an attempt to show the intruder that he had none, but Warren continued to demand money. The teenager eventually handed over his wallet containing £810 and, as the knifeman left the room, he told his victim: “Don’t trust your mates”.

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The teenager followed his attacker outside where he spotted his uncle in the street. He told him what had happened and the two men jumped into the uncle's car and went to search the Biddulph estate for the intruder. They also called the victim's mother and gave her a description of the attacker. The court heard it was the mother who spotted, chased and confronted Warren. The mother then searched the defendant but found no money or a knife. However, as she searched him, several zip ties fell out of his pocket.

The prosecutor said it was Warren who called police claiming he had just been assaulted by the mother who he said had punched him six times in the face. Officers arrived and arrested Warren, and a search of the area uncovered a switchblade knife and a wallet containing £810 near the nearby railway line. When interviewed the following day, Warren denied entering the victim’s home, possessing a knife and taking any items. In a statement read to the court, the teenage victim said being stabbed in his own bedroom had been traumatic and had affected him deeply. He said the money in the wallet was all he owned and was money he had saved for his pregnant partner. For the latest court reports sign up to our crime newsletter here

Archie Warren, of Lower Cross Road, Llanelli, had already pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary when he appeared in court for sentencing. He has a previous conviction for an offence from August 2022, namely failing to provide information about the driver of a vehicle. Stuart John, for Warren, said reports presented to the court detailed the defendant’s “very difficult upbringing” and diagnoses of oppositional defiant disorder and borderline personality disorder. He said his client’s use of psychedelic drugs had contributed to his “bizarre” behaviour.

Judge Geraint Walters said Warren had entered the complainant's bedroom with a knife and zip ties to demand money, and said the defendant's reference to “not trusting your friends” suggested to him that Warren had been told about the cash by someone who knew both parties. He said the defendant had escalated from a relatively minor offence to the very serious offence now before the court, and described the facts of the case as “bizarre to say the least”. With a quarter-reduction in sentence for his guilty plea, Warren was sentenced to four years in prison. He will serve up to half of that sentence in custody before being released on bail to serve the remainder of his sentence in the community.

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