A VIOLENT criminal assaulted a man before robbing him in the city centre.
Christopher Young, 30, assaulted Mark Hill in a random attack while drinking in his victim's flat in Andrew Marvell House.
Young, who has already served time in prison for stabbing a man, then preyed on Mr Hill after spotting him walking through the city centre, punching him again and robbing him.
Jailing him for two years, Recorder Michael Smith told Young: "If you keep on committing offences like this, a judge will pass an indeterminate sentence upon you.
"When you are released you want to be very careful because you will be sent to prison for a very long time."
Hull Crown Court heard Young punched Mr Hill four times in the face before fleeing the flat.
Prosecutor Phillip Evans said: "The punches were very powerful and they left him in shock. His girlfriend shouted at Young to stop and told her partner to go to a friend's flat which he did."
Hours later the same day, Young spotted Mr Hill walking along Ferensway by the train station.
He pushed him into a doorway and punched him eight times.
Young, of Terry Street, west Hull, told him: "Stop moving or you will get stabbed."
Young then robbed him of a cigarette lighter, £7 in cash and £4.50 in tobacco.
Mr Evans said: "Mr Hill had seen no knife but no doubt with the assault still fresh in his mind the threat of the knife was enough to scare him into co-operating."
The attacks happened on June 5 and CCTV operators followed Young after the city centre assault to see where he went.
The police arrested him shortly afterwards.
He pleaded guilty at Hull Crown Court to assault and robbery. Recorder Michael Smith told him: "You visited the flat of this man and, for no good reason at all, you attacked him and assaulted him. Later that night you pushed him into an alleyway and attacked him and took some of his tobacco."
He warned Young he would have gone to prison for longer if he had not admitted the attacks.
Young was jailed for 45 months after he stabbed a man four times in the chest.
Then in 2008, he was jailed for threatening to stab his brother and for assaulting a man in his 60s in another unprovoked attack in Paragon Street, Hull.
In 2011, he asked a man to take him home for £10 and, when he arrived, he told him he had a gun and ordered him to kneel in front of him and hand over all his money.
His solicitor Geoff Ellis said: "He is now in danger of becoming institutionalised."
