Staff feel for raiders’ kids

By Tania Martin
CUCKOO Restaurant staff who were threatened with a loaded shotgun during a bungled raid have sent their best wishes to the children of the would-be robbers.
The children now face years of foster care as their parents begin a combined 15 years in jail.
The pair, Donna Hayes, 36, formerly of Belgrave, and her ex-defacto husband Ben Jorgensen, 38, formerly of Brooklyn, were last Tuesday sentenced for armed robbery and for negligently causing serious injury.
During the hearing the court was told that Hayes had gone into a spiral of depression and drug addiction over causing the death of SBS broadcaster Aurelia (Elica) Pia Rizmal on Easter Sunday 2006.
Ms Rizmal died in the head-on smash on Monbulk Road, south of Grants Picnic Ground, a short distance from where her son had died 25 years before.
The Cuckoo’s general manager Horst Lantzsch said he felt sorry for the children who have now been affected by the raid.
“We are a family restaurant and have always been concerned about how this would affect the children,” he said.
Mr Lantzsch said the children’s grandmothers had also shown great courage in visiting the restaurant to apologise for the raid.
“Our heart goes out to the families at this tragic time but we now hope healing can start for something that should never have happened in the first place.”
The Melbourne County Court last week heard how Hayes and Jorgenson attempted the raid on the Cuckoo Restaurant shortly after 12.30am on Sunday 1 April.
Jorgensen threatened Mr Lantzsch with a shotgun as he left the restaurant carrying a bag which the raiders thought was holding $30,000.
But the armed robbery went horribly wrong when Jorgensen accidentally fired the gun injuring Hayes in the buttock.
It was later revealed that the bag contained only the restaurant’s left-over bread rolls.
Counsel for Jorgensen, Greg Thomas told Judge Roland Williams that the bungled raid had been the result of the influence of drugs and a desperate need for cash.
In Hayes’s case, Judge Williams said that although he failed to make the connection between the fatal accident and the raid, he understood that the guilt had led Hayes to taking drugs.
Judge Williams labelled the couple a ‘pair of fools’ and said the raid had been ‘hopelessly bungled’.
In sentencing the pair, Judge Williams said Jorgensen had shown remorse to not only the staff at the Cuckoo but also his co-offender who he had shot.
Jorgensen was sentenced to seven years’ jail with a minimum non-parole term of four-and-a-half years.
Judge Williams sentenced Hayes to two years’ jail, which has been added to the six-year sentence she is currently serving for culpable driving.
She will now serve an eight-year sentence with a non-parole period of five-and-a-half years.