A “DANGEROUS” criminal who carried out two robberies the day after escaping from a mental health unit grinned as he was jailed for eight years.

Lewis Moiloa, of Bartsia Road, Bicester, absconded from the Evenlode unit at the Littlemore Mental Health Hospital on April 5 last year.

The following day he carried out two violent robberies and an attempted robbery as part of a gang, punching his victims and taking their mobile phones.

The 20-year-old was given an extended eight-year prison sentence on Thursday as a judge at Oxford Crown Court branded him a dangerous offender whose crimes involved “violence for the sake of it”.

Naomi Perry, prosecuting, told Judge Mary Jane Mowat that Moiloa already has a long criminal record including other robberies and a total of 20 assaults.

She said all three of his recent offences took place in Bicester on the evening of April 6, when the victims were approached by a group of young men who threatened, punched and kicked them until they handed over their mobile phones.

Judge Mowat said the defendant had been sent to the Evenlode unit, which deals with adults with learning difficulties who have committed crimes, in 2011 after he admitted two earlier robberies.

But Judge Mowat said while at the unit Moiloa assaulted staff, punching a nurse in the face when he was not allowed to go outside for a cigarette.

Quoting his pre-sentence report, she said that he presented a “high risk of serious harm to the public”, given the nature and seriousness of his offending.

Judge Mowat said she took into account that Moiloa had a “difficult start in life” coming to the UK from Botswana, witnessing domestic violence at a young age and struggling with undiagnosed learning difficulties at school.

But she told him: “I take the view that you are a dangerous offender, sadly even at the age of 20.”