Burglars threatened to behead woman and dog
Northumbria PoliceThree "marauding criminals" armed with a machete and hammer who threatened to behead a woman and a dog while burgling an elderly couple's home have been jailed.
Craig Rogers, Lee Justice, and Lee Kinnell, laughed as they terrorised the woman and her husband, who had dementia, in August 2023, Newcastle Crown Court heard.
The woman told the court the attack was terrifying and had left her "traumatised" and "vomiting with rage".
Justice, 53, and Kinnell, 44, admitted aggravated burglary, while Rogers, 46, was found guilty of the offence. All three had lengthy criminal records for dishonesty and violence, with a judge saying Rogers in particular was a "dangerous offender".
Kinnell had gone to the couple's home earlier on the afternoon of 21 August 2023 on the pretext of selling sunglasses but was actually scouting it out to target later, Recorder Anthony Hawks said.
The couple were asleep in bed that night when the trio smashed their way in through a patio door, with Justice and Rogers masked by balaclavas and carrying a machete and ice-pick-style hammer, the court heard.
'Husband would have died'
They threatened to decapitate the woman and her dog and laughed at the elderly man, who had dementia and was just dressed in his boxer shorts, before stealing money and sentimental valuables, the judge said.
In a statement read to the court, the woman said the burglars were "horrible people" who "bullied" the couple into handing over their possessions.
"They just traumatised [us]," the woman said, adding: "I don't think I'll ever get over the shock of that.
"I will never be the same person again.
"We were terrified."
She said she was "begging" the men to go and believed if they had hit her husband he would have died.
The woman said she was "vomiting with rage" at the way they laughed at her ill husband.
'Significant risk of harm'
Recorder Hawks said the burglars had been armed with "horrific weapons" and he was "not surprised" at the victims' lasting fear.
"An elderly couple in bed in their own home are entitled to feel safe and not be at the mercy of masked armed marauding criminals," the judge said.
Rogers, who the judge said had an "appalling criminal" record which included jail terms of seven and 14 years for robbery and wounding, was also sentenced for hitting a man with a car and leaving him with a fractured neck.
That attack was carried out in Newcastle on 3 February 2024, prosecutor Sam Faulks said.
The judge said Rogers had been assessed as posing a "significant risk" of "serious harm" to the public and was a "dangerous offender".
Justice was also sentenced for breaking into a cafe and stealing £1,000 in cash in January 2025 and an attempted machete attack on another man in Gateshead in June 2024.
The men and their sentences were:
- Lee Justice, of York Terrace, Felling, Gateshead, jailed for seven years
- Lee Kinnell, of Budleigh Road, Kenton, Newcastle, jailed for six years
- Craig Rogers, of Eastgarth, Newbiggin Hall, Newcastle, jailed for 15 years with a further four years on extended licence
