A FORMER schoolboy once controversially suspended for doing a strip tease at school is now behind bars after a violent armed robbery.

Jordan Halpin raided a shop in Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire, where he threatened to kill two workers with a knife.

Halpin first hit the headlines back in 1998 - when he aged only nine - he was kicked out of his primary school for doing a striptease in the playground with a friend.

The youngster told at the time how he wanted classmates to pay 50p each to help him buy a Mother's Day present.

But, Halpin went from baby-faced joker to serial offender as a broken home-life - including a heroin addict mum - lead to a life of crime.

A judge heard how the now 26-year-old dad-of-two had already racked up 34 convictions.

Halpin was back in the dock today where he admitted to a charge of assault and robbery. He was jailed for four years and four months at the High Court in Glasgow.

The raid occurred at the Nisa store in Mountblow Road, Clydebank on February 24 this year.

Halpin had been sleeping rough having walked out on his partner and children following a row.

The court heard how Halpin discussed with a friend about carrying out a robbery - before getting his hands of two knives and a borrowed jacket.

CCTV played in court later showed him storming up to the till area of the shop while swinging a blade.

Prosecutor Paul Brown told how Halpin demanded cash from two workers and yelled: "I will kill you". He snatched around £500 and bottles of vodka before fleeing the scene.

Halpin - having been identified from the CCTV footage - was later held by police despite trying to escape.

The court heard he became "upset" while confessing to the robbery. Halpin already had a lengthy list of convictions - including assault, shoplifting and possessing offensive weapons.

But there was no hint of a criminal in the making when in 1998 he told how he had been booted out of school for doing a Full Monty - copied from the hit Robert Carlyle film.

His headmistress suspended him after he asked classmates to pay 50p each to see him and a friend strip.

Halpin said then: "No-one put in any money but we just did it anyway.

"Everyone was laughing at us and screaming like in The Full Monty. I flung my clothes around and over the fences."

The then nine-year-old claimed it only happened to help him buy a present for his mother.

But, Halpin's lawyer today told how the robber was put into care not long after this - aged just 11 - due to his mum being a drug addict.

He then returned home at 16 and his mum later gave birth to his baby brother. However, the child died just 54 days old in March 2006.

Ronnie Renucci, defending, said: "This appears to have had a significant impact on him."

Mr Renucci added that around each anniversary of the tragic death, Halpin "generally felt down". He went on: "It is a period he feels quite depressed.

"He said that he was feeling low shortly before the offence. He had also had an argument with his girlfriend three days earlier."

However, the lawyer said Halpin realised the robbery must have been "terrifying" for the victims.

Judge Lord Turnbull said the jail-term would have been six and a half years, but for the guilty plea.