This is the huge 17-inch machete used to threaten a shopkeeper during a terrifying raid on a Bootle newsagents.
Ryan Kelly, 23, Shaun Moorcroft, 21, and Liam Brett, 25, struck at Sisters Shop News in Peel Road on Sunday, May 24 last year.
Liverpool Crown Court heard how Kelly, who had the huge blade under his coat, challenged 57-year-old Don Dissanyake at around 11am.
Nicola Daley, prosecuting, said: “He shouted ‘this is a holdup, give me the f****** money, put it in the f****** bag now’.”
The brave shopkeeper refused and masked Moorcroft tried to grab him – reaching through a hatch and swiping a handful of chewing gum.
Kelly paced up and down and hit a plastic window with the machete, causing it to crack, before leaning into the hatch with the weapon.
Ms Daley said: “He lunged towards the shopkeeper who had a golf club in one of his hands, which he had picked up from behind the counter.
“Mr Dissanyake had to move away to avoid being injured.”
Brett, who put up his hood to disguise himself, kept lookout outside, but the three men fled empty handed when Mr Dissanyake called police.
Officers arrested Moorcroft after recovering his fingerprints from the counter top.
When officers showed him CCTV of the incident, he replied: “Deffo not me, that.”
But when he was told about his fingerprints he accepted being at the scene.
The court heard Brett told officers “I weren’t there, mate”, while Kelly made significant admissions.
All three men admitted attempted robbery, but Brett only pleaded guilty on the first day of a trial. Kelly also admitted possessing an offensive weapon.
Kelly, of Wordsworth Street, Bootle, has previously been locked up for possessing an imitation firearm and carrying a truncheon in public.
Jeremy Rawson, defending, said Kelly was on drugs during the raid.
He said: “He took a substance he thought was cannabis and it turned out to be Spice.
“He didn’t understand what had happened until the CCTV was shown to him.”
Mr Rawson said the dad-of-two had a disabled partner and their children had now been taken into care.
Moorcroft, of Sharples Crescent, Crosby, was previously locked up for attempted robbery.
(From left to right): Ryan Kelly, 23; Shaun Moorcroft, 21; Liam Brett, 25.
Oliver Cook, defending, said Moorcroft had “tried to keep out of trouble” since his two-year-old daughter was born.
Paul Lewis, defending Brett, of Hornby Road, Bootle, accepted he was on licence, having been released from a four-year sentence for dealing heroin.
Recorder David Turner, QC, said: “Shopkeepers who keep convenience stores open for us the rest of us, if we want a bottle of milk etc on a Sunday morning, can’t afford to have a bouncer on the door or an expensive security device. They must be protected by the law.”
Recorder Turner gave Kelly three years, Moorcroft two years and three months, and Brett three-and-a-half years behind bars.
Brett hissed at the judge, shouting “You’re mad, aren’t you?”
Speaking after the case, Detective Constable Kevin Reppion said it was “a brazen and vicious robbery” in which Mr Dissanyake was threatened with a “very dangerous weapon”.
He said: “The victim showed great courage and did exactly the right thing by calling police straight away and the three men fled.
“The significant sentences handed down should send a clear warning to other criminals who think it is acceptable to target local shops in Merseyside and wrongly believe they will get away with it. They won’t.”
Source: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/