A Victoria woman who robbed a man after he was stabbed and seriously injured by one of her friends has been sentenced to two years in jail, followed by one year of probation.

Crystal Thorne, 21, pleaded guilty Thursday in Western Communities provincial court to two robberies. Thorne pleaded guilty to robbing Ryan Lesage on Sept. 30, 2014, and to robbing two youths near Westshore Town Centre on Jan. 6.

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“These are serious robberies,” said Judge Roger Cutler, who accepted a joint submission by Crown and defence, and imposed a sentence of two years less a day, followed by probation.

The judge gave Thorne, who has been in custody since Jan. 13, credit of three months for time served. This means she must serve a further 21 months in jail.

Crown prosecutor Steve Salmond told the court that West Shore RCMP received a report at 5:30 p.m. on Sept. 30 that a man had been stabbed near Glennan Road in Langford. They arrived and found Lesage bleeding from the face and chest.

Witnesses told police that Lesage had been drinking with a friend that afternoon on the Galloping Goose Regional Trail. Thorne, who was with a 17-year-old girl and another man, heard Lesage had money and they decided to rob him, Salmond said.

The Crown believes the man who was with Thorne stabbed Lesage, Salmond said. The blade of the knife went into Lesage’s brain. He was permanently disabled and will require treatment for a long time.

“There’s no evidence to link the two females to the stabbing, other than that they were present for the incident. There’s no information that they understood it was going to happen and encouraged it,” Salmond said.

Another youth told police she saw Thorne and the 17-year-old go through Lesage’s backpack and take items out of his pack.

The 17-year-old has pleaded guilty to being an accessory to aggravated assault and has already been sentenced, Salmond said. The robbery took place when Thorne was serving a one-year probation order connected to a suspended sentence for an earlier robbery, he said.

The second robbery took place on Jan. 6. Thorne was working with some unknown men, Salmond said. She managed to use two young teenage girls to lure two youths into an area near Westshore Town Centre. The youths were robbed by men wearing ski masks. They took a watch, a hat, a phone and a wallet, Salmond said.

Although Thorne was not involved in the violence, she engineered the robbery, he said.

“If she was older, I think we’d be asking for a penitentiary term,” Salmond said.

Defence lawyer Michael Munro said Thorne’s guilty pleas are early and meaningful.

“These would not have been simple matters to prosecute,” Munro said.

He also stressed that Thorne, who turned 21 in December, is young. “She has done well inside,” Munro told the judge. “It’s her first time in custody, which has been a bit of a culture shock to her.”

Thorne has successfully completed a Workplace Hazardous Material course, a unit on family violence and a course called Dogs and Babies Entering a Home.

Cutler ordered Thorne to give a sample of her DNA and prohibited her from possessing weapons for five years after her release from custody. Thorne is not to have contact with her co-accused or victims.

ldickson@timescolonist.com