Balaclava-clad burglars threaten to chop woman's fingers off for jewellery in Suffolk raid

Balaclava-clad burglars who broke into an elderly couple's house threatened to chop the woman's fingers off as they tried to steal jewellery and money.

One of the pair held a knife to the throat of the man, who was aged in his 70s, when they raided the house in Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, before pushing him to the ground.

The other burglar threatened the woman with a knife and demanded money, before seeing rings on her fingers and telling her to hand them over or he would chop her fingers off to get them, said police.

He then emptied her handbag before both burglars fled from the bungalow in Norman Drive on 11 August 2018.

After the alert was raised with police, officers identified an address in Lancaster Avenue the following day where they arrested 32-year-old Jordan Carr along with another man and a woman.

Carr had a rucksack which was found to contain boxes of cigarettes and pouches of tobacco belonging to the elderly man, whose wedding ring was also found stuffed down the side of a sofa. 

At Ipswich Crown Court on Thursday, Carr was jailed for 11 years and ordered to serve an extended licence period of four years, after admitting aggravated burglary.

He had initially denied the charge but changed his plea to guilty on the fifth day of a trial in December last year. 

A 46-year-old man who had also been charged in connection with the incident was found not guilty following a trial in December. 

Carr is currently serving a five-year prison term for robbery handed down in September 2020. The latest sentence will begin after that.