Albany man accused of violent booze stealing spree faces court

An Albany man appeared in court yesterday after allegedly robbing two liquor shops and breaking the nose of the owner of one of the stores. Paul Jerry Coyne, 35, was charged with aggravated robbery and stealing after he allegedly took about $200 worth of alcohol from two stores on Sunday. The first incident occurred about 9.15am at the Lower King Liquor & General Store. Security camera footage shows him striking owner Brian Down, who tried to stop him leaving the store. Mr Down said he became suspicious as soon as a vehicle with no registration plates pulled into the petrol station. “I asked him what he was after and he said $10 fuel, so I told him to go pay for it while I proceeded to pump the fuel into the car,” he said. “When he came back out, a chap sitting in the back seat jumped out and came into the bottle shop. He grabbed a ten-pack of mixed spirits and two bottles of spirits and proceeded to walk out.” Mr Down said he came back into the shop when he saw the man walk past the counter. He said it was too early to buy alcohol because the bottle shop did not open until 10am. “I put my hands up in front of him to try stop him and he just laid his boot into me,” Mr Down said. “He smashed me into the front door, and as I tried to go after him he smashed the ten pack of cans into my face and broke my nose.” Mr Down said he was shaken by the incident. “Over the years you get a few people coming in, grabbing alcohol off the shelf and trying to walk out the door,” he said. “You do get sick of it, but no one has attacked before.” “A lot of the time when you confront them, they’ll put it down so that’s what I tried to do this time. “I thought I’d stop him maybe, but he just attacked.” Later that day, about 3pm, a man of a similar description allegedly stole alcohol from McKail’s General Store. The bottle shop clerk, Daniel Willock, was behind the counter and watched the man come in with a bandana around his face, after leaving a cricket bat outside the shop. “He walked straight to the fridges and got out a six-pack of Jim Beams and some large stubbies — the whole time talking to himself,” he said. “He was just totally out of it. “After he got what he wanted he wandered to the counter, tapped on it and said ‘there you go’. “I said ‘mate, you’ve got to pay for that’ and he was like ‘I just did’ and at that point I thought ‘OK, this isn’t worth it’.” According to Mr Willock, the man also approached the store owner’s mother outside. “She said something to him like ‘I guess everyone just walks in and gets what they want’ and he looked at her and said something nasty and then gestured like he was shooting a bow and arrow at her,” he said. “So I called the police straight after that.” Albany police said they arrested Coyne about 5pm that day after a foot chase through paddocks in McKail. He appeared at the Albany Magistrate’s Court yesterday but the hearing was suspended until tomorrow because of his disrup-tive behaviour in the court-room.