"Cowardly" Sheffield knifeman and two masked men robbed 73-year-old newsagent worker

Sheffield Crown Court heard on September 20 how Anthony Parry, aged 39, of Bankwood Road, Gleadless Valley, Sheffield, struck at Claypit News, on Claypit Lane, Rawmarsh, Rotherham, where a 73-year-old woman was working alone in the early hours.

David Webster, prosecuting, said the woman was confronted by three masked men with hoods and face coverings, including Parry.

Mr Webster told Judge Peter Kelson KC: “She realised what was happening and as your honour might expect she was shaking with fear and panic and she moved towards the panic button but she was instructed by this defendant not to move and she would not be hurt.”

Parry handed bin liners from the shop to an accomplice who put down a large kitchen knife which was picked up by the defendant and he pushed the woman and pointed the knife at her before the offenders fled with money, cigarettes and alcohol, according to Mr Webster.

Mr Webster said the 73-year-old woman has worked at the shop for 17 years and she had survived a previous similar incident but insisted that she did not want this robbery to stop her working.

Parry, who has drug issues, was linked to the offence from finger prints left on bin bags from the shop, according to the court.

The defendant, who has 39 convictions for 79 offences including burglaries, pleaded guilty to the robbery which happened on October 16, 2019.

Rebecca Tanner, defending, said Parry is genuinely remorseful and although he has expressed that he committed the offence with these two unknown individuals at a time when he was in the grips of a drug addiction that took control of him, he does not seek to blame anybody else or argue that his drug abuse gave him any excuses.

Ms Tanner added: “He has not committed an offence of robbery previously. He had not appreciated that the victim in the shop would be the age she was. He is fully ashamed of himself as he should be and recognises while he has got an unenviable antecedent history the commission of this offence is an all time low for him.”

Judge Kelson said that the elderly woman in the shop could be seen on CCTV footage shaking and placing her head in her hands several times during the robbery.

However, he praised her subsequent courage to continue working and described her as a “remarkable lady with Sheffield steel in her veins”.

Judge Kelson told Parry: “The CCTV shows what a callous and cowardly offence this was. Three of you. You a grown male – the other two presumably grown males – just helping yourselves.”

He added: “When you get in there and see this poor lady cowering in distress and shaking you carry on, you carry on the offence, you point the knife at her and you get the black bags to get what you wanted.”

Judge Kelson sentenced Parry to seven years and two months of custody which is to be served consecutively to an existing custodial term imposed in May of two years and eight months for a burglary.