Liverpool court jails armed robbers after Waterloo terror

Jul 30 2009 by Mark Johnson, Crosby Herald

TWO armed robbers who terrorised three people at a Waterloo convenience store have been jailed.

During a two-minute reign of terror on a cold February night, Adam George Bedford and Ian William O’Neill, dressed in black hoodies and using a “very realistic” imitation handgun tried to force cash from petrified female staff members of Booze and News in Oxford Road.

At 9.30pm the store was empty of customers and Bedford pointed the ball bearing gun – which had been “blackened” to make it look “compelling” – at the face of store assistant Rita Hopkins before twice demanding the till takings.

Little did she know that the weapon's barrel was loaded with a single plastic ball and when the trigger was later tested by police it failed to function.

But Ms Hopkins believed her life was in danger and dived into the back of the store where the shop’s owner, Tina Roberts, was carrying out paper work in her office.

Tina threw gas cylinders across the bottom of the doorway to prevent the robbers from gaining entry then hit the panic alarm button to alert the police.

But Tina’s husband Stephen – who had been watching the horror unfold on the upstairs CCTV system – entered the store only to be told to back off as Bedford directed the gun point blank at his face.

The robbers botched a bid to open the till and made their way to the spirits and took three bottles, including Bailey’s.

Fleeing the store, they made off toward St John’s Road, with the police giving chase.

They ran toward railway tracks by St John’s Road where O’Neill, 20, dropped a bag.

Bedford, 19, dropped some items and had his legs struck with a baton as police caught up with them.

The pair were eventually captured, detained and questioned during which O’Neill admitted his part in a further 12 armed robberies across south Sefton and north Liverpool over a two-week period at the beginning of this year.

At Liverpool Crown Court on Friday (July 24), Rachel Oakdene, defending shaven-headed Bedford, said the Booze &News robbery had not been professionally planned and was an “isolated incident”.

Judge Bruce MacMillan, QC, sentenced Bedford, of Rumney Road, Walton, to two years in jail for robbery, but because O’Neill had admitted committing a dozen similar offences the judge felt he “clearly [fell] into a different category.”