Armed raiders on Newbury’s Nightingales estate, Stephen Chandler and Anthony Abery, jailed for total of 17 years.
TWO masked men who smashed their way into a housing estate home and robbed the occupant at gunpoint have been jailed for a total of 17 years.
One of them was a former solider whose life had been blighted by a colleague dying on a training exercise.
The terrifying ordeal happened on The Nightingales in Newbury and the bloodied victim handed over £1,000, Reading Crown Court was told.
At a previous hearing Charles Ward-Jackson prosecuting, said the victim was Oliver Street who lived at Howarth Court.
On the morning of Sunday, February 25, he was in bed with his girlfriend, Lauren Goddard, when the door was kicked in.
He was confronted by a masked gunman holding a firearm to his head, and an accomplice with a knife.
IStephen Chandler, aged 50, and Anthony Abery, aged 44, who were both living at the Two Saints hostel in Newtown Road, Newbury, were both convicted of aggravated burglary.
Mr Ward-Jackson said the pair had demanded cash and the ‘gunman’ pointed what appeared to be a firearm at Mr Street, who grappled with him.
Mr Street’s right hand was cut by the knife in the ensuing struggle and the two raiders began an untidy search.
A terrified Mr Street then reached under his bed, pulled out a shoe box containing his £1,000 savings, and handed it over.
The raiders grabbed it and fled, he added.
Mr Street meanwhile had to have a head wound stitched at hospital.
During the trial, Abery changed his plea to guilty, on the basis that he was not armed.
Chandler was convicted by jurors.
At a sentencing hearing on Friday, August 30, Paul Dainty, for Chandler, outlined how his client had served in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Royal Regiment and that a subsequent drug addiction stemmed directly from that.
He said Chandler had heard his friend crying in distress on a gruelling training exercise, but had been told to ignore it.
Mr Dainty said the suffering soldier died in the sleeping bag Chandler had placed him in.
The body was removed and Chandler was told to sleep in his dead friend’s sleeping bag, the court heard.
He subsequently suffered post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), was discharged from the army with no help, and fell into a life of drug addiction and crime, added Mr Dainty.
Counsel for Abery, meanwhile, said he had received a death threat which he believed came from Mr Street.
The burglary happened on the anniversary of his sister’s murder, the court heard.
Abery was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in prison and Chandler were jailed for nine years.
They will serve two thirds behind bars and the remainder on licence in the community.