Two men, who broke into a house while a baby slept upstairs, have been jailed.
Colin Brown, aged 36 and from Stanway Road in Coney Hill and Craig Wood, aged 33 and of Portreath Way in Kingsway, were sentenced to a total of 16 years in prison when they appeared at Gloucester Crown Court on Thursday 27 March.
They had pleaded guilty to robbery at a previous hearing.
The court heard how the men had arrived at an address in the Mount Pleasant area of Stroud just before 2.50pm on Wednesday 8 January. They were wearing balaclavas and armed with a crowbar and serrated knife.
Doorbell footage showed Brown and Wood attempting to force entry to the front door of the property, and when confronted by a man who was inside, Wood threatened to shoot him. He was then heard telling Brown to “get the shooter”.
Brown then used a crowbar to smash a window before the pair gained entry to the property.
Once inside, Brown tackled the male occupant to the floor and held a knife to his neck whilst demanding to know “where the weed was”.
Meanwhile, a woman who was also in the property had locked herself in an upstairs bedroom with her child. She was on the phone to the police when one of the intruders came upstairs and forced the door open.
He pointed a knife at the woman, grabbed her phone and asked where the drugs were before going downstairs again.
Brown and Wood then assaulted the male victim, who sustained cuts and grazes to his hands, before leaving the address with the woman’s phone.
Police were at the scene within five minutes and immediately spotted Wood near the property still wearing a balaclava. He was arrested and charged with aggravated burglary.
The knife used to threaten the victims was found in the hallway of the property, while the crowbar and a quantity of cannabis was discovered in a neighbouring garden.
Brown fled the scene but was located ten days later and was also arrested and charged with aggravated burglary. Both men later pleaded guilty to the alternative charge of robbery.
When sentencing Brown, His Honour Judge Ian Lawrie KC took five other burglaries and a dangerous driving offence into consideration and handed him an 11-year jail term. Wood was given a custodial sentence of five years.
Brown was also ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £228 and both men were given a restraining order which remains in place for 12 years.
Detective Constable Mollie Grice, from the Criminal Investigations Department, said: “It was the middle of the afternoon when Brown and Wood committed this violent intrusion into a house where a child slept upstairs. It must have been a terrifying ordeal for the victims.
“I am pleased that Wood and Brown are now facing the consequences of their actions and I hope that their sentence demonstrates that we take incidents like this seriously and will always investigate them thoroughly and bring offenders to justice.
“No-one should feel unsafe in their own homes, and we will continue to actively pursue offenders who commit burglary within our communities.”
