Teenage robber was armed with knives and dog chain in Bitterne

Jaypal Khaira pictured, targeted all his victims at night, asking them for “a quid” before producing the weapons and stealing their mobile phones.

The six young men feared they were going to be punched or stabbed.

Khaira, who turns 18 today, then forced his victims to relive their ordeals in court – after denying the charges and standing trial despite the advice of his barrister.

The Daily Echo can today publish Khaira’s picture after successfully appealing to a judge to lift an order banning us from identifying him because he was under 18.

In jailing him for four years Judge Derwin Hope, Recorder of Southampton, said he agreed that Khaira’s crimes were so serious that the public deserved to know who was responsible.

Southampton Crown Court heard how it was in August last year that Khaira carried out the robberies in the Bitterne area of Southampton.

Prosecutor Richard Wilcox said they had all taken place on the opposite side of the river to where he lives in Polygon, suggesting “some deal of planning”.

The court heard how following the ordeals, victims told police of being shaken and frightened, fearing they were about to be “battered”.

Given special protective measures in court while they gave evidence, each boy told how they had seen Khaira with the dog chain or a knife.

Mr Wilcox said the effect on each of the youths who had to come to court had been “profound”

and “very frightening”.

Khaira, who also has a long list of previous convictions, was found guilty after a trial in December last year and as he was sentenced asked for a further four crimes to be taken into consideration.

They included another street robbery in which police say a car jack was used, as well as two attempted robberies and a theft which happened in the Eastleigh area.

Mitigating, Rufus Taylor said Khaira had “made a bad situation much worse by fighting the trial” which he added was “doomed from the outset”.

He said: “His (Khaira’s) only way out in his mind was ‘fingers crossed and hope he’d be acquitted’. “ Formerly a pupil at The Romsey School until he was expelled at the age of 13 for carrying a knife, Khaira had suffered racial abuse and bullying, he said.