A man who held three female Cobden servo attendants at knifepoint during a terrifying armed robbery was plagued by intravenous drug use and violence as a child, a court has heard.
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Mitchell Darkes, 28, of Bacchus Marsh, attended the Cobden BP Roadhouse service station on November 23 last year, produced a large knife and demanded cash.
He was on bail for similar offending against a taxi driver just months earlier and had six prior convictions for armed robbery and attempted armed robbery.
Darkes pleaded guilty to armed robbery and other charges in Melbourne County Court in April and on Tuesday was sentenced to two years' jail and a community correction order.
The order will run for four years with three years of intensive conditions, including constant supervision, transitional support and treatment for mental health and drug abuse.
Darkes has already served 678 days in pre-sentence detention.
Judge Duncan Allan said the man had served 90 per cent of his adult life in prison and had never served a period of parole due to his homelessness situation.
He said Darkes was repeatedly released back into the community without "any support in an endeavour to steer you away from the road that you were on - a road of self-destruction and crime".
The judge said he accepted Darkes had a history of significant childhood trauma, including being in a room intentionally set on fire when he was five, intravenous heroin use at 15, and observing a drug deal stabbing.
Judge Allan said the sentencing practice had caused him "a great deal of consternation".
He said the armed robbery at Cobden's BP Roadhouse service station showed signs of careful planning, including attending in a rented car and with the registration plates removed.
He said Darkes waited for customers to leave the scene and brought a knife with him before advancing on three female victims.
But the judge said there were exceptional circumstances in sentencing, including a real risk of institutionalisation that would further damage Darkes' mental health and continue the cycle of recidivism.
In sentencing, the judge reiterated the impact of two factors - Darkes' dysfunctional childhood and early drug addiction - which he said impacted on the man's development and subsequent criminal offending.
Judge Allan said the sentence should not be regarded as a "soft option".
"By the time Mr Darkes will be released, he will have spent close to 10 years in jail between the ages of 20 and 30, having experienced two or three short months in the community, during each of which he was inadequately supported and relapsed into drug use," he said.
The judge said if not for Darkes' guilty plea, he would have been jailed for six years.
He urged the man to pull his head in.
"There is a golden opportunity here for you," Judge Allan said.
"Do what you can to set up the rest of your life."
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