A teenage girl from Halmstad has been sent to a juvenile detention centre after police used a photo she took of herself brandishing a knife before robbing a local restaurant as evidence against her.
The robbery, which occurred in March, was carried out by the girl, 17, and a teenage female accomplice after they threatened staff at a Max hamburger restaurant with the 30-cm long knife. Prior to the incident, they took balaclava-clad pictures of themselves brandishing the knife in a mirror.
The two girls were apprehended just 47 minutes later after sniffer dogs managed to trace them. They had stolen 2,420 kronor from the hamburger bar, with witnesses saying they told staff at the restaurant to hand over the money or be stabbed.
Police discovered a bag full of money and the smartphone used to take the picture of the girls when trying to find them. They were able to trace them back to the convicted girl’s grandmother’s house, where they told police they had just got back to following a walk.
Despite the evidence against her, the convicted girl denied the robbery and said the pictures they took were only a joke, while police could not gather enough evidence to convict her suspected accomplice.
However, the 17-year-old, who was the older of the two girls, was sent to a juvenile detention centre and told that the punishment would have been far harsher had she been 18 or over.
The court was told that she came from a troubled family and was treated as an outcast by her family. In the detention centre she will be councilled by a youth psychiatrist.