by Paul Hooper
hernebaygazette@thekmgroup.co.uk

A disabled grandmother threw herself onto her terrified grandson to protect him from a machete-wielding gang who ordered her husband to open a family safe at gunpoint.

Sandra Croud bravely shielded the seven-year-old as three masked men stormed into their home.

Despite being threatened with a kicking, she refused to move as the gang aimed a gun at her husband and forced him to open the safe.

Canterbury Crown Court heard the men planned the break-in believing there was money and drugs stored in the property.

But when they raided the house they discovered Mr and Mrs Croud and their grandchild asleep in bed.

Prosecutor Guy Dilliway-Parry said: “It was 11.15pm when three of the gang went towards the house. They were all wearing hoods. They kicked in the front door.

“At first, Mrs Croud thought the noise was from their son. She shouted three times but got no answer.

“Then a male ran up towards her with a gun shouting: ‘Get up the stairs’. He was followed by another male who was armed with a machete.

“The gunman shouted at Mrs Croud to move but she is disabled and struggled to get back up to the top of the stairs. She was then shoved backwards against the bathroom door.”

Her husband then came out of the bedroom as the gunman shouted to his accomplice – who was armed with a two and half foot curved machete: “Slice him, slice him”.

The gang then snatched £150 from the safe as Mrs Croud went towards her grandson, who had curled himself into a ball on a mattress, and lay down with him – defying threats to move.

Mr Dilliway-Parry said: “One of the men then moved as if to kick her and then told her they would kick her if she didn’t move as another member of the gang downstairs shouted that it was time to go.

“The child was awake throughout the incident and absolutely terrified.”

The prosecutor said a neighbour in Dene Walk, Margate, who had seen the arrival of the gang, noted the car’s registration number and alerted police. Neither of the weapons was recovered.

Mrs Croud later told police that since her ordeal she has felt depressed and scared to be alone in the dark.

She said: “This has changed my life in every way. I have to have someone with me at all times now.”

Canterbury Crown Court heard how she had redecorated the bedroom in an effort to eliminate the memory of the attack in August 2011.

Mrs Croud said she had contemplated moving home but “then I think, why should I let them win?”

Tollington, 33, of Wolseley Avenue, Herne Bay (pictured top) was jailed for 10-and-a-half years after being found guilty of aggravated burglary.

Lee Twyman (pictured second from top), 24, of Poet’s Corner, Margate was ordered to be jailed indefinitely and told he has to serve a minimum of four years before he can be considered for parole.

He had committed the break-in while he was on licence after being released early from a four-and-a-half-year sentence for six robberies.

Getaway driver Anthony Gould (pictured third from top), 21, of St Peter’s Road, Margate, was jailed for eight years after he was convicted follwing an eight-day trial.

John Horn (pictured fourth from top), 26, of Melbourne Avenue, Ramsgate was jailed for seven years and six months.

A fifth man, Terence Grice (pictured bottom), 29, of Market Place, Ramsgate, had wielded the machete and was jailed for eight years and will have an extended licence of seven years when released. Like Horn and Twyman he admitted the charge.

Judge Heather Norton told them: “This was not an address picked at random. You rightly or wrongly believed that you would find money and drugs there.

“You were prepared to use those weapons to threaten and intimidate anyone who got in your way. Whoever it was that you were expecting to find in that house, it was, in fact, occupied by Mr and Mrs Croud, who were with their seven-year-old grandson. He was utterly terrified.

“You pointed that gun at Mrs Croud’s head and forced her upstairs. And then one of you pointed it at Mr Croud and ordered him to open the safe. This was a quite horrendous crime on vulnerable people, including a disabled woman.”