Three Telford men guilty of Boxing Day robbery
Three Telford men who mistook a man for a police informant and burst into his home on Boxing Day armed with a penknife have been found guilty of robbery.
Anthony McGuire, 50, James McGuire, 39, and William Stewart, 48, all denied robbing Lee Sharp at his home in Telford on December 26.
But a jury at Shrewsbury Crown Court unanimously found all three men guilty yesterday after a trial lasting six days.
The robbers, who all lived together at Summerhill in Sutton Hill, had claimed to be victims of mistaken identity.
But they were apprehended after both Mr Sharp and his girlfriend Michelle Holmes picked them out of ID parades.
Mr Sharp recognised two of the men from the streets of Sutton Hill and said he lived with the ordeal "every single day of his life".
The father of two told of the moment the men forced their way into his home and robbed him in front of his screaming girlfriend and terrified children, aged three and six.
At about 8.15pm he answered a knock on the door to a man who said "You're Dan, and you are a grass" before barging his way in with two other men.
One of the men briefly held a knife up and the men took his mobile phone, £45 cash for his children's Christmas, a scratchcard and a betting slip, as well as some cannabis Mr Sharp had for his own personal use.
He said as he backed into the kitchen his girlfriend screamed for help out of the kitchen window and told the men his name was not Dan.
Mr Sharp said: "I said: 'Look, I have got kids in the house'.
"They were in the same room, the kitchen. My girlfriend shouted out the window and said 'get out, we have got kids'.
"My kids were screaming, she was screaming."
Judge Peter Barrie told the men they will be sentenced on Friday.
