Masked thugs smashed their way into house in violent 'revenge attack'

A GANG of young, masked and violent armed robbers from Nottingham broke into a Beeston house, attacked one of the occupants, threatened others with weapons and stole thousands of pounds in jewellery.

- By MARTIN NAYLOR [e-mail]

Nottingham Crown Court heard how Jaydon Fordham, Jimmy Dennis, Kelan Dennis and Ellito Holt, their faces concealed, worked together to smash their way into the address in the dead of night in what the hearing was told was "a revenge attack".

The group then used their weapons to break windows to gain entry, attack one of the occupants, steal a car and use it to ram their way out of gates at the address.

Putting them behind bars for a combined total of more than 20 years, Judge Rosalind Coe KC said: "What I have seen on the CCTV is shocking and must have been terrifying. It does not matter what the history is or who the people involved were, there is no justification for taking revenge in this way.

"To find yourself asleep at 4am and being awoken by windows being smashed in a particularly violent way using weapons and then hearing footsteps coming up the stairs with weapons being brandished can only have been the stuff of nightmares. But it was not, it was real.

"One of them was then subjected to real violence and threatened with much more violence and the property was clearly vandalised.

"The vehicle in the attack was then used to ram its way out of the gates.