by Paul Hooper

Two brave Margate schoolgirls chased after a drunken robber who snatched one of their mobile phones, a court heard.

The girls, aged 12 and 11, had been in Victoria Road in September when the attack happened.

Daniel Rose, 19, had already robbed two other youngsters the same day before confronting the girls, Prosecutor James Bilsland told Canterbury Crown Court.

"They were approached by Rose and asked if they smoked," he said. "They said they didn't and were then asked about the phone they were using.

"The 11-year-old said she was nervous and put two hands around her phone but Rose made a grab for it.

"She was pulling back with all her body weight. Rose grabbed her hand and took hold of her finger and peeled it off the phone, causing her middle finger to be bent back hard, causing her pain."

Rose, of Rodney Street, Ramsgate, then ran off into a nearby graveyard pursued by the girls who then alerted one of their fathers.

Her phone was later returned and police then arrested Rose nearby.

Earlier that night the teenager had attacked two other people, terrifying a 16-year-old who feared he was going to be stabbed as he walked near Ramsgate Rail Station.

A few hours later, Rose attacked a 17-year-old boy in Hawley Street, Margate, stealing mobile phones, iPods and headphones.

Rose, who admitted three robberies, told police officers he had been drunk at the time of the attacks.

He was sent to a Young Offender's Institution for two and a half years.

The teenager – who sat with his head bowed in the dock during the hearing – wrote a letter to Judge James O'Mahony, telling him: "I hope you understand that I'm not a bad person and I'm only trying to make something of myself."

The judge told him: "I wonder if you have given any thought to what your victims would have to say about that?

"But I concede you have a lot of good in you. You are clearly an intelligent and quite articulate young man and it's a tragedy to see the depths to which you have descended.

"I'm sorry, I wish I could wave a magic wand and pass a sentence and take the chance you won't offend again. Maybe you won't but I have to mark what you have done with a sentence of custody. I would be failing in my duty if I didn't."