Terrified woman’s baby threatened by gang who punched her in stomach
A terrified pharmacist’s baby was grabbed and the mother robbed of her wedding ring during a daytime break-in at a house by a masked gang, a court heard.
The woman, who had recently undergone a caesarean section, was punched in the stomach at Wrexham in North Wales in September 2020, the hearing was told this week.
Prosecuting barrister Simon Mintz said at Mold Crown Court that four offenders had turned up at her home armed with a screwdriver. They demanded to know where there was gold. He said: “It’s a particularly concerning aspect they threatened to kill the baby if she didn’t tell them.”
John Price, 22, of no fixed address, was jailed for seven and a half years. Patrick Flynn, 19, of Station Court, Gwersyllt, Wrexham, was locked up for 74 months. They admitted conspiracy to rob.
Scott Powell, 23, of Y Wern, Wrexham, pleaded guilty to assisting an offender by arranging to hide a car. He was jailed for 21 months.
Judge Niclas Parry told them: “You have been convicted of varying involvement in what was an appalling and extremely serious crime.” It was a pre-planned attack on the house where the raiders knew an Asian family lived and believed there would be gold.
A vehicle involved had cloned number plates and Price had been on a reconnaissance days earlier.
He said to Price and Flynn: “On the day in question the two of you, with others, smashed your way into the house. Upon realising there was a person upstairs and being confronted with a lone female carrying a two-month-old baby, rather than leave, rather than realise the seriousness of what you were doing, you called out for each other and charged her.
“You attacked your victim, you ripped a necklace from her neck, you tore a wedding ring from her finger, you brandished a weapon, all as she held on to her baby.
“You snatched the baby from her arms. This terrified the mother. You threatened to kill the baby. The mother believed you might carry out that threat and in the meantime you were punching her to the face and abdomen. The operation scar on her abdomen was still healing.”
The victim suffered a chipped tooth from a punch. She begged them not to harm the baby.
Carl Woolf, for Price, said he smoked crack and heroin and was already serving a jail term for a series of burglaries.
Barrister Andrew Green said Flynn was “genuinely remorseful.”
Powell’s counsel, Matthew Curtis, said he was ambitious and had plans for the future.
