Mob 'robbed young victims during evening of violence'

The group operated across Dudley, leaving their victims hurt and shaken up, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.

Mr Simon Phillips, prosecuting, said: “They operated as a pack and were very intimidating..”

The first victim was targeted at the bus station at Brierley Hill’s Merry Hill Shopping Centre because he had upset some of them during an incident at the school several of them attended, jurors heard.

He was confronted by four members of the gang, one of whom punched him in the face several times, while another snatched a baseball cap from his head, said Mr Phillips.

The court then heard the victim fled to a bus whose driver opened the door for him but his attackers were barred from boarding.

A 17-year-old youth from Cradley Heath has admitted delivering the blows but three others alleged to have taken part – two aged 15 and one 16 from Cradley Heath, Quinton and Oldbury – admit being in the relevant area at the appropriate time on August 8, 2016 but have denied involvement in the crime, the jury heard.

Mr Phillips insisted: “Only one of them assaulted the victim but they were in it together.”

Less than two hours later the quartet and four others from the gang confronted four boys riding BMX bikes at a skateboard park on waste land in Old Wharf Road, Stourbridge.

The cornered lads were threatened and patted down while ordered to hand over their mobile phones, with each later allegedly identifying people from the gang as being among those involved, the court was told.

The robbers then headed to the local bus station where they split up, probably because police had been called, continued Mr Phillips.

Five of those alleged to have taken part in the robberies concede they were in the area but deny involvement.

These include Danyal Hussain, aged 18, of Harcourt Road, Old Hill, one aged 17 from Cradley Heath and the two 15-year-olds and the 16-year-old accused of the earlier offence.

Two others – 20-year-old Yunus Muflahi from Winwood Road, Rowley Regis and a 17-year-old from Smethwick – insist they were elsewhere at the time while the 17-year-old who pleaded guilty to the bus station attack has admitted one of the robberies, it was said.

Muflahi and Hussain are further alleged to have robbed another young man of his mobile phone as he walked through Haden Hill Park, Cradley Heath on August 19, 2016. They both deny this and the robbery charges.

The other five defendants in the dock plead not guilty to all charges.

The trial continues.