A woman was left 'scared witless' after being tied her up, gagged and punched by two men who forced their way into her flat over an apparent drug debt. They barged their way into her 12th-floor home without warning and she was subjected to "abhorrent" treatment, including being threatened with mole grips and that a hot iron would be held to her face.
The victim was also threatened with being intimately strip-searched during the lengthy ordeal. When her boyfriend returned home, he was also threatened with a knife to his throat, Hull Crown Court heard.
Scott Thomas, 31, of no fixed address but from Hull, and Colin Mellors, 41, of Belmont Street, Hull, denied two offences each of robbery on August 16 but they were convicted by a jury after a trial. Thomas denied making threats with a kitchen knife but he was cleared of that offence, HullLive writes.
Cathy Kioko-Gilligan, prosecuting, said that Thomas and Mellors forced their way in to the high-rise flat of a woman in Bodmin Road, Bransholme, after 10pm, while her boyfriend was out during the evening.
She heard a knock at the door and, when she went to answer it, Thomas and another man that she did not know, Mellors, were standing outside. Both she and her boyfriend knew Thomas.
"They are not friends with him, more acquaintances and someone they knew lived locally," said Miss Kioko-Gilligan. "Both defendants barged their way inside.
"Thomas began to demand the return of his property, something she knew nothing about. The situation soon escalated."
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Thomas bound the woman's hands together using black cable ties that he found in the flat. "He assaulted her, threatened her and demanded the return of his property," said Miss Kioko-Gilligan. "It is not clear what property the defendant wanted returning. It could well have been drugs. We simply do not know.
"He was not satisfied with her answers and resorted to what can only be described as abhorrent measures." Whatever had been lost or taken, it did not warrant the woman being subjected to the "most terrifying ordeal".
The woman was gagged with a piece of her own clothes and she was threatened with mole grips on her fingers. She was punched in the face, causing a cut to the bridge of her nose, and was threatened with a drill bit. She was threatened that a hot iron would be held to her face or head.
Mellors did not physically assault the woman but it was more than likely that he did what he was instructed by Thomas to do – watch over the woman. She was "trussed up" and carried into the living room.
"Mellors sat next to the terrified complainant to ensure that she did not move," said Miss Kioko-Gilligan. It enabled Thomas to tie her up and to move freely about the flat to find weapons or to search the flat and steal £40, belonging to the couple, that was on a dressing table.
"This was a joint enterprise," said Miss Kioko-Gilligan. The woman's boyfriend was also subjected to a "frightening ordeal" when he returned home to find Thomas standing in the hallway of the flat.
Thomas had a knife and he held it to the throat of the boyfriend. "He went on to threaten him in the hope that his demands would be met and his property returned," said Miss Kioko-Gilligan.
The boyfriend did not know what he was talking about. "The ordeal that both of these complainants were subjected to only came to an end when a package was located inside the flat and was handed to the defendants, who then left."
The woman said during a police interview: "He gagged me. He did it that hard, I could not breathe. I said: 'Get off, get off'. He punched me full force to my nose. I said: 'You're hurting me. I don't know what you are on about'.
"He said to me: 'You're not going nowhere'. I said: 'I haven't got nowt. I don't know what you are talking about'."
The woman claimed that Thomas told her: "I don't give a f***. You are getting it." Thomas hit her on the head with an iron. She claimed that he told her: "I want my s**t back." She told him: "I haven't got nowt."
She said that he was "whacking" her on the head and used mole grips. The woman said that Thomas warned her: "I will f***ing strip search you." It was at that point that her boyfriend turned up. She claimed that Thomas told him: "Tell your girl I want my s**t back."
She said: "He wouldn't let me leave my seat to look even though there was nowt in the house."
The police were alerted and Thomas was arrested at premises in Waveney Road, east Hull, on August 26. He answered "No comment" to all police questions. He claimed that he went to the woman's home to borrow tools because his car, that was parked outside, had a flat tyre.
Thomas claimed that he was invited inside the flat. He denied robbing either victim or inflicting violence on the woman. He claimed that it was an amicable visit.
Mellors was not arrested until some time later because his identity was not known by the woman. He admitted to police on December 12 that he had been at the flat with Thomas. "He claimed that he waited outside the flat door," said Miss Kioko-Gilligan.
"He accepts going inside the flat but only going as far as the hallway." Mellors claimed that Thomas and the woman had a verbal exchange about a missing parcel.
"The prosecution say that the defendants' accounts simply do not stack up," said Miss Kioko-Gilligan. "The defendants were in this together. They leave together jubilant and in good spirits."
Thomas had convictions for 54 previous offences, including two of assault causing actual bodily harm and others of assault and affray. Mellors had convictions for 22 previous offences, including motoring offences and breaching court orders.
Julia Baggs, mitigating, said that psychological harm was caused to the victims by Thomas and he wanted to apologise to them. Thomas had two young children aged four and two. While in custody, he had done courses in building, catering, bricklaying, tiling and maintenance.
"He wants to change his life for the better and be a positive and productive member of society," said Miss Baggs. There had been a gap in his offending for two years before committing the robberies.
Andrew Steele, representing Mellors, said: "These are serious offences and the defendant doesn't want me to shy away from that." Mellors claimed that he had been "petrified" of Thomas and did what he was told.
"He is genuinely sorry for what happened," said Mr Steele.
Judge Kate Rayfield said that Thomas was "quick to resort to the use and threats of violence" after demanding the return of his "stuff". This was likely to have been drugs, although the trial had not "got to the bottom" of what it was.
The woman had her wrists tied together with cable ties and she was gagged with her own clothes. "She could not breathe and described herself beginning to drift out of consciousness," said Judge Rayfield. Thomas eventually took the gag off but used mole grips on the woman's fingers and he punched her in the face with full force.
"She thought that you were going to kill her that night," said Judge Rayfield. "She was shaking with utter fear. She remains profoundly affected by what you did to her. She remembers how she genuinely thought she would die that night. She lives in constant fear, for ever looking over her shoulder. She has suffered serious psychological harm."
Judge Rayfield told Thomas: "You behaved as you did towards her because you knew that she was vulnerable and would not be able to stop you."
There was blood all over the woman's face and she suffered two black eyes. She was a vulnerable woman who was "scared witless in her own home". The woman's boyfriend also thought that he might be killed that night.
Thomas was jailed for 15 years after being branded a dangerous offender. He will be on extended licence of four years after his release from prison. Mellors was jailed for 10 years. They were given an indefinite restraining order.
The case resurfaced a couple of days later when Judge Rayfield reduced the 10-year sentence that she had originally imposed on Mellors.
The prison sentence on him was lowered to eight years after she reconsidered the category level of the offences that had originally been used in calculations.
