Witnesses say they had silver pistol pointed at them during robbery in dark street

The witness was the driver of a white Holden Commodore, parked on Granville Street when a man and a woman approached at about 6.30pm on June 15, 2021.

The second witness was sitting in the passenger seat.

Zane Andrew Henderson, 28, pleaded guilty to a count of aggravated robbery with the woman of the youths' jacket, cash and coins and the Commodore.

Mr Henderson pleaded not guilty to aggravated armed robbery.

His defence lawyer Patrick O' Halloran said the issue in the trial was whether Mr Henderson was armed with a firearm at the time.

"The live issue is how accurate and reliable the witnesses who speak about the firearm are and how the location impacts," he said.

The driver said the pair were parked in a dead-end section of Granville Street West Launceston when approached by a male and female who arrived in a car.

He said the man asked for him to roll him a cigarette.

"Then the male started getting a bit aggressive towards me and he started asking for money and then got us out of the car and held a gun up towards me," he said.

He said the man was wearing a balaclava hoodie and a red cap and pulled the revolver out from near his waist.

He said the man told him to put his hands up, which he did.

Asked by crown prosecutor Peter Sherriff what the firearm looked like, he said: "It looked like a silver six-shooter revolver."

He said that the man showed him two bullets in the chamber.

"He opened up the gun to show me the bullets," he said.

"Was he still pointing it at you?" Mr Sherriff asked.

"He pointed it downward and opened the chamber to show two bullets sitting in the gun," he said.

The court heard that the man walked around the passenger side, where the female was with the passenger, and pointed the gun.

"He told the lady to slap my mate," he said.

Under cross-examination by Mr O' Halloran, the driver denied he had been smoking cannabis.

He said the area was dark, with a streetlight about 40 metres away.

The passenger said that the man said give me your money and drew a "silver revolver of sorts".

He said the man came around to his side of the vehicle and was holding the weapon with two hands while pointing it at him and saying hurry up.

The passenger said he went down to his knees beside the car, and the woman slapped him across the face.

He said he could not see what the man looked like because it was dark.

He handed over his jacket, which contained a couple of notes.

Mr O'Halloran asked him: "My suggestion is that you never saw a revolver?"

"Your suggestion is false," he said.

"He never had any type of firearm," Mr O'Halloran repeated.

"False again," he said.

"I suggest what you saw was a mobile phone"? Mr O' Halloran asked.

"That sounds false to me," he said.

He said the sequence was the man demanding belongings, showing the revolver and bullets and saying it was not a game.

The jury heard that no firearm was ever found and that Mr Henderson was not located for several days.

Both witnesses said they were shocked by the incident.

In his opening address, Mr Sherriff said the man and woman left but were seen by police in Wellington Street, who followed them to Pedder Street, where the car was found abandoned.

The woman was located in a house on High Street, and in the vicinity, police found clothing, including a red cap saying, RIP Kane.

The trial continues on Monday.