Robbers armed with a torn beer can slashed driver's face

Police said the victim was also punched repeatedly during an assault which involved snapping his car key in the ignition to stop him escaping from the scene on Glengall Street.

High quality audio and visual CCTV footage from a nearby hotel captured two men and a woman planning the suspected drug-related attack last month, it was claimed.

Details emerged as one of the accused, 21-year-old Abbi Molyneux, faced a charge of robbing the injured party of a wallet containing £70 in cash.

Belfast Magistrates’ Court heard she allegedly asked the man for money after he parked in the street shortly after 11pm on February 3.

Molyneux, of no fixed abode, then walked away as two men approached the car window, according to the driver’s account.

One of them immediately broke the key in the ignition while the other brandished something in his hand and declared: “I’ll slice the face off you”.

Both men demanded his money before he was stuck twice in the face with the object, inflicting lacerations to his cheek.

“He was punched to the face during the attack and told again ‘we’re going to slice the face off you’ and ‘we’ve got your car keys, you’re not going anywhere’,” an investigating detective said.

She claimed cameras in the area showed Molyneux standing about 10 metres away and looking on throughout the robbery and wounding.

At one stage the victim sounded his car horn and tried to get out of the vehicle. But the two men allegedly continued the assault, grabbing his wallet before fleeing from the scene.

Further inquiries located high definition sound and visual cameras installed at a service entrance of the nearby Europa Hotel.

Police claimed the recordings established Molyneux’s involvement in the planning and carrying out of the robbery, including how she was to approach the victim’s car first.

One of the co-accused allegedly asked her directly: “Abby, is it ok to rob this f***?” When it was suggested that it could come back on her through phone contact she replied “I don’t care”, the court heard.

The detective said the footage also showed her two co-accused ripping a beer can in half and fashioning it into weapons.

“They took them with them to the vehicle by stamping down on the tin halves making them flat,” she added.

District Judge Anne Marshall was told the recordings depicted Molyneux answering a phone call while one of the men shushes the other and both lean over to listen in to her conversation.

A short time later the car pulled up close to the group and all three of them walked towards it.

Molyneux was described as an intravenous drug user who knows the victim from previous purchases.

Her barrister, Michael Boyd, argued that she had taken substances and did not actively participate in any plan to rob the man.

“The audio appears to pick up the co-accused bringing Ms Molyneux into it because she knows this individual and has purchased drugs from him in the past,” counsel submitted.

“She was asked to ring him on that basis and was persuaded that she would get drugs from the transaction.”

With Molyneux denying the charge, Mr Boyd described her as a vulnerable young woman “at risk of various nefarious practices going on in the city centre”.

Judge Marshall agreed to grant her bail, but only if she obtains an address approved by police.

Adjourning the case until April 2, she also banned her from contacting either co-accused or the victim. E