Men jailed for violent home invasion as baby slept

Two men have been jailed for breaking into a house and threatening the occupants with a knife while their baby slept upstairs.

Colin Brown, 36, from Stanway Road in Coney Hill, and Craig Wood, 33, of Portreath Way in Kingsway, were sentenced at Gloucester Crown Court on 27 March.

Clad in balaclavas and armed with a crowbar and serrated knife, the pair forced their way into a property in the Mount Pleasant area of Stroud, Gloucestershire.

Wood was jailed for five years while Brown was handed an 11-year jail term due to previous convictions for burglary and a dangerous driving offence.

The court heard how the men had arrived at the address shortly before 14:50 GMT on 8 January.

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 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 while 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.

Gloucestershire 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 10 days later. He was also arrested and charged with aggravated burglary.

He was ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £228, and both men were given a 12-year restraining order.

Det Con 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."

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