Two masked robbers broke into a home and held knives to the throat of a heavily-pregnant woman while her young children slept upstairs. Jamie Woodrow, 34, and Adam Fellows, 25, burst into the family's home late at night and forced Kerry Smith, who was eight and a half months pregnant, on to her knees while holding a knife to her throat.
Armed with a "Rambo"-style knife and a Stanley knife, they screamed at the Miss Smith and her partner Lance Johns to show them their safe before ransacking the house and making off with thousands of pounds of the family's property.
Jailing them for seven years each, Judge Jeremy Richardson QC said: "The violence used and the threats utterly terrified your victims. I cannot ignore the fact that children were in the house. I regard the conduct towards the pregnant woman as an unpleasant and degrading aspect of this case coupled with the chilling threats."
Hull Crown Court heard the couple were at home at 10.30pm on May 23, while their baby and two other children aged four and five were asleep upstairs. The masked robbers, armed with their knives, burst into the couple's house and demanded to know where the family safe was.
Woodrow assaulted Mr Johns, while Fellows ordered Miss Smith to kneel in the kitchen, holding a knife to her throat and threatening to cut it. Mr Johns secretly dialled 999 and hid his phone in a laundry basket in the hope the police could hear the robbers and come to their rescue. His plan worked.
As the pair left the house in Withernsea, police arrested Woodrow running from the scene. They arrested Fellows later at his home. The court heard the pair had been planning the robbery for days.
Fellows, of Kirkfield Road, Withernsea, and Woodrow, of Walter Street, Withernsea, have both been jailed for seven years after admitting robbery and possessing of weapons. The court heard the pair were "polite, hard-working family men" who had turned to crime to get money and drugs. Judge Richardson QC told them they had made an "astonishing leap" from low-level crime to an extremely violent robbery.
He said: "You made threats to cut their throats and at one stage made threats of violence to their children. You both had weapons and this crime was plainly premeditated. Your motivation was for drugs and money. The crimes that you committed are usually perpetrated by hardened criminals. You have made a substantial leap into the depths of serious crime."
He told them if they had taken their case to trial they would have been jailed for 11 years.
Detective Inspector Joanne Roe from the Priority Crime Team said: "Incidents of this nature are rare and isolated in the Withernsea area and we were pleased to apprehend them so quickly following the offence. We welcome the sentence as the actions of these individuals had a large impact on residents in the area. I hope the sentence also acts a warning to others that incidents of this nature will not be tolerated."
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