![An armed Aaron Creighton and two other men behind the counter of the Spar Express supermarket at Morpeth on January 19 last year. An armed Aaron Creighton and two other men behind the counter of the Spar Express supermarket at Morpeth on January 19 last year.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/v6ZqFubQfSczSV22Th78nc/c6476509-08a0-442e-b377-61f68d563fcb.png/r0_0_827_461_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
A CREW of armed robbers and thieves terrorised businesses across the Hunter during a three-day crime spree in early 2022, attempting to hold up service stations and pubs and stabbing a supermarket owner in the stomach during an armed robbery.
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The full extent of the spate of armed robberies and break-ins can be revealed after the ringleader of the crime group, Aaron Creighton, pleaded guilty to a number of offences in Newcastle Local Court last week.
Creighton, now 22, as well as Blake Stanton, Victor Russell, Murrinjii Griffiths and a fifth member of the crew, who detectives allege is Trae Reid, became the target of Robbery and Serious Crime Squad detectives who formed Strike Force Conge to investigate a number of break-ins and robberies across the Hunter in January, 2022.
Four of the men have now pleaded guilty to a string of offences, including numerous aggravated break and enters, robberies, travelling in stolen cars and the most serious offence of armed robbery causing wounding for the stabbing of a Morpeth supermarket worker on January 19. Mr Reid has not entered any pleas and will next appear in Newcastle Local Court next month.
It was early on January 17 when four of the young men pulled up outside the BP service station at Bennetts Green in a stolen car.
One of the men convinced the console operator to let him in, but then stood in the doorway while the rest of the crew stormed in and began making threats.
The console operator fled out the back into a locked room and triggered the alarm and the men fled empty handed.
The next night, during the space of about an hour, the group broke into the Anna Bay Hot Bread Shop, two service stations at Salt Ash and the Jesmond post office before they held up a cleaner as he arrived for work at the Blackbutt Hotel at 4am.
The cleaner got out of his car and was confronted by three men, one armed with a knife, who took his wallet, phone and watch and then marched him inside where they tried unsuccessfully to open the cash registers and ATM.
It was the next morning that Creighton and two other men held up the Spar Express supermarket at Morpeth.
Creighton was armed with a knife and jumped across the counter, pointing the knife at the owner's stomach and demanding money.
They took the cash drawers, but then Creighton barked "where is the rest of the money?"
Where's the rest of the money?
- Aaron Creighton asked a Morpeth supermarket owner before stabbing him in the stomach.
When the owner replied "that's all I got", Creighton punched him twice in the face and stabbed him in the stomach. The men fled and the supermarket owner was taken to hospital.
The men were arrested in February after a police pursuit at Maryland.