Jail term increase for Shropshire farm raid thugs
Three thugs who carried out a brutal robbery on a 76-year-old Shropshire farmer who was dragged out of his bed, tied up and beaten unconscious have had their sentences increased by the Court of Appeal.
Daniel Jones, 21, of Aynesworth Green, Shrewsbury, Matthew Wood, 19, of Noble Street, Wem, and Christopher Weaver, 18, of Queensway, Wem, selected John Savage's rural home at Factory Farm, Loppington, near Wem, knowing he was vulnerable.
Mr Savage, who is now 77, was woken in his bed late at night on June 21 last year by a torch shining in his face.
The raiders demanded to know where he kept his guns and, when he said he did not have any in the house, they knocked him unconscious with a torch or a cosh and stole £20 from his pocket.
Wood and Weaver admitted robbing Mr Savage and a litany of other crimes at Shrewsbury Crown Court in July this year and were handed total sentences of eight years and three months and seven years and 10 months respectively.
Jones, who admitted the robbery at Loppington only, got six years and nine months.
But all three sentences were challenged at London's Appeal Court by the country's most senior law officer, the Attorney General, Dominic Grieve QC, and three top judges agreed they were far too lenient.
Wood had his overall sentence increased to 10-and-a-half years, Weaver's went up to nine-and-a-half years and Jones had his jail time upped to eight-and-a-half years.
Ruling their original sentences 'unduly lenient', Lady Justice Rafferty, sitting with Mrs Justice Thirlwall and Judge Andrew Gilbart QC, said the trio 'went in mob-handed with weapons', knowing that Mr Savage was a vulnerable target, and had been in search of firearms.
In a witness impact statement submitted to the court , Mr Savage said: "Through no fault of my own, I have had my life turned upside down.
"I have been left angry by what has happened to me and disturbed that young people who committed this horrific offence have such empty lives that they have nothing better to do than steal and beat up an elderly man."
