New year retrial in village post office robbery
Tydd Gote post office.
Two men accused of robbing a Lincolnshire postmistress at gunpoint face a re-trial in the New Year after their case was halted for legal reasons.
Sam Holmes (21), and David Leadbeater (22) were alleged to have robbed Jane Wright of £670 in cash after bursting in to the village store at Tydd Gote brandishing two guns.
The pair went on trial at Lincoln Crown Court alongside Leadbeater’s sister, Sasha Cracknell, who is alleged to have helped them by ringing up the post office and asking for the opening hours.
But after three days of evidence the 12 members of the jury were discharged from returning any verdicts when the trial judge stopped the case for legal reasons.
It will now be relisted at Lincoln Crown Court in the New Year.
The jury heard Mrs Wright, who had worked at the post office for 23 years, suffered bruising to her back and ankles when she tried to stop the two armed intruders.
The robbers fled with only £670 from the day’s float after Mrs Wright gave them just part of the code for the safe despite being pushed to the ground, the court heard.
It is claimed they were helped by Cracknell (21), who at the time of the robbery was living in the neighbouring village of Allenby’s Chase.
Cracknell (21), of The Old School House, Allenby’s Chase; Holmes of The Knole, Eltham, in South-East London; and Leadbeater, of no fixed address but originally from Plumstead, London, all denied robbery at the post office in Station Road, Tydd Gote on 21 June.
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Thursday 23 May 2013
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