Three men jailed for Christmas Day robbery in Cradley Heath
Three men who took part in a Christmas Day robbery of family presents have been sentenced to a total of more than 13 years in prison.
Two young children were left terrified by the ordeal, which saw a man pushed into a Christmas tree and assaulted with a bottle.
After a day of drinking and taking drugs Kieron Hale, Joel Parker and Carl Little visited the home of Hale's ex-partner Lisa Leighton in Meadow Walk, Cradley Heath, during the early hours of Christmas Day last year.
Wolverhampton Crown Court heard how 30-year-old Hale, now of no fixed address but previously of Windmill Hill, Halesowen, had split up with Miss Leighton a few weeks earlier and went to her house to "cause trouble".
Prosecutor David Iles said Leighton's then partner and former friend of Hale, Bryan Sullivan, answered the door and was assaulted, with Miss Leighton and her two girls aged 13 and 15 still upstairs. Miss Leighton was also struck by Parker before police turned up to apprehend him and Hale as they made their escape with the presents. Little had fled.
Parker, aged 25 and of Chillington Walk, Rowley Regis, admitted his role in the robbery, as did Hale.
Twenty-two-year-old Little, of Windmill Hill in Halesowen, denied the charge and was taken to trial where a jury convicted him last month. Jasvir Mann, defending Hale, said: "He's able to recognise that none of this would have happened if it wasn't for him."
Judge Martin Walsh yesterday sentenced Hales and Parker to four years and eight months, with Parker receiving an extra eight months for a separate burglary in Stourbridge in 2011. Little was sentenced to four years.
By Tim Spiers
