Boxing Day raid robbers jailed
Three robbers who burst into a man's home and threatened him in front of his family on Boxing Day in the mistaken belief he was a police informant have been jailed for a total of 13 years.
Anthony McGuire, James McGuire and William Stewart accused Lee Sharp of being "a grass" before one of them threatened him with a penknife in front of his screaming girlfriend and two young children, Shrewsbury Crown Court was told.
They then took his mobile phone, his children's £45 Christmas money, a scratchcard and a betting slip, as well as some cannabis Mr Sharp had for his own personal use.
The three, who were all found guilty of robbery, were sentenced by Judge Peter Barrie yesterday.
Anthony McGuire, 50, and James McGuire, 39, were each sentenced to five years in prison while Stewart, 48, was jailed for three years.
The robbers, who all lived together at Summerhill in Sutton Hill, Telford, 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".
At the trial, the father-of-two told of the moment the men forced their way into his home and robbed him in front of his girlfriend and children, aged three and six.
At about 8.15pm on Boxing Day 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. Mr Sharp said: "At the front door he had (the knife) in my face to start with. As we came back into the kitchen I never saw it again."
