Knifeman jailed for 15 years over violent Black Country robberies
A young robber who knifed a teenager in the back during a month-long crime spree has been locked up for 15 years.
Giovanni Campbell was found by police hiding in a hedge after he stabbed a 17-year-old boy in the back outside Co-operative Travel on Dudley High Street in June last year.
The victim was left with a knife wound but his injuries were not life-threatening.
Campbell, 21 and of Reservoir Road in Rowley Regis, was found to have left the same boy with minor chest and arm injuries after a separate town centre attack earlier in the month.
And further enquiries revealed that Campbell had been behind a number of other violent crimes in the Black Country.
Earlier in June Campbell and an accomplice approached two teenagers in Kitchener Road, a residential street in the Kates Hill area of Dudley, and demanded their mobile phones.
One of the men, aged 18, managed to get away as Campbell tried to search his pockets and ran after him him flailing a knife.
However Campbell then returned to assist his partner in crime by dragging the knife across the hand of the second man and stabbing him in the leg as an iPhone was taken.
West Midlands Police used descriptions and information from other victims to link Campbell to other robberies where victims were threatened or attacked for their mobile phones.
On one occasion, Campbell punched a 15-year-old boy in the face and made him get off a bus travelling between Wolverhampton and Birmingham and on another he forced a teenager to hand over his phone at Dudley bus station.
Campbell pleaded guilty to charges of wounding, robbery, attempted robbery and having an offensive weapon between May 28 and June 29 last year but denied stabbing the 17-year-old in High Street.
However he was found guilty of wounding the teenager with intent following a trial and jailed for 15 years at Wolverhampton Crown Court.
Detective Constable Pat Lewis, of West Midlands Police, said: "Campbell is a dangerous man who not only intimidated but willingly attacked victims with a knife – including the same boy twice.
"He used excessive violence to predominately target mobile phones in and around Dudley and the bus network.
"Officers were quick on the scene following his last attack and, despite the risk of him carrying a knife, tracked him down hiding in a hedge.
"Knife crime and violence won’t be tolerated and those involved face losing their freedom for a long time."
