A SECOND man has admitted taking part in a shop robbery in which a cashier was saved from serious injury by his long dreadlocked hair.

Kierran Fairey, from Newton Abbot, pleaded guilty to robbing the Ellacombe News store in Victoria Road, Torquay on April 11 this year when he appeared at Exeter Crown Court via video link from prison.

Footage of the raid circulated on social media after the robbery and showed co-defendant Patrick Grady appearing to attack the shop assistant with a hammer. Fairey was also armed, but in his case with a crowbar.

Both men stole bottles of alcohol but were later identified by police.

Fairey, aged 31, of Forde Close, Newton Abbot, admitted robbery and possession of a crowbar as an offensive weapon in Victoria Road, Torquay, on April 11.

Judge Stephen Climie adjourned his case so he could be sentenced alongside Grady, who had admitted the Ellacombe News raid and an earlier robbery on a shop in Belgrave Road, Torquay on January 21.

He ordered a probation report and told Fairey: ‘This offence justifies an immediate custodial sentence of some length, but the length cannot be determined without knowing more about your background and history.

At a separate hearing last month, Grady, aged 33, of Corfe Avenue, Torquay, admitted robbing a shop in Belgrave Road on January 21, and the Ellacombe News shop in Victoria Road on April 11.

Mr Nigel Wraith, prosecuting, said Grady was filmed on CCTV punching a shop assistant during the first robbery, which took place after he was refused service because he was drunk.

He responded by attacking the cashier and threatening him with one of two bottles of vodka which he stole.

He said the second robbery had been pre-planned and Grady had gone into the shop with another man and while armed with a hammer they stole bottles of vodka.

The cashier had been hit over the head with the hammer and was lucky to escape more serious injury when he was attacked with the weapon.

He said the attack could have caused a fractured skull but that the victim suffered only a gash to his scalp because Grady’s blows fell on his dreadlocked hair.