Drug addict Daniel Pordage robbed a cafe and a shop using a child's cap gun while high on crack and heroin, a court heard.

Pordage, 21, bought the cap gun for a friend's child but the friend refused the gift as unsuitable.

Pordage had the gun in his jacket pocket when he walked in and out of the cafe several times in Gildredge Park, Eastbourne, on Sunday, September 29, last year.

A female member of staff who had a young child with her was working at the cafe when Pordage walked in.

Lewes Crown Court heard yesterday Pordage, of no fixed address, approached the woman and asked for money. She declined and he pulled out the gun from his right pocked and demanded cash.

He took £20 from the coin tray of the till and ran off.

A few days later, on October 3, Pordage walked into the One-Stop shop in Polegate, the village where his grandparents had once lived, and asked about staff while he flicked through a magazine.

He then approached the male member of staff and asked for money, producing the gun.

Pordage took £50 and asked for cigarettes before running off.

A fingerprint taken from the magazine and CCTV footage led to his arrest in Seaside, Eastbourne on October 4.

He was picked out at a video identity parade by the victims of the separate robberies.

Pordage pleaded guilty to two counts of robbery.

Michael Harrison, defending said Pordage had been physically abused by his father, fallen into drink and drugs and, although he had previous convictions for burglary and handling, he none for violent offences.

On the day he carried out the robbery on the cafe, he had taken crack cocaine, heroin and consumed four cans of lager.

On the day of the second robbery, he had a gramme of heroin in the morning and had injected more heroin at lunchtime.

Sentencing Pordage to four years' imprisonment for both offences, Judge Anthony Niblett said : "Each of these two people, the lady in the cafe and the gentleman in the shop suffered what must have been a terrifying experience."