Thugs stormed house and made off with dogs worth £8000
THREE LOCKED UP OVER ARMED RAID
THREE thugs who took part in a puppy raid in which a machete was held against the throat of a 10-year-old were locked up last night. Ben Murphy, 19, Liam Kinsella, 27, and Samuel Durnion, 21, were members of a gang armed with blades and hammers who smashed into Leanne Hodge’s home. One of the raiders grabbed a young girl there and screamed: “Where is your f ***** g dad?” The gang then grabbed eight three-week-old Bull Mastiff puppies valued at £8000. Murphy had left a letter
BY GRANT MCCABE and his passport nearby and he was soon snared, along with Kinsella and Durnion.
At the High Court in Glasgow yesterday, the three admitted acting with others to carry out the assault and robbery last August. The thugs were locked up and will be sentenced next month.
Prosecutor Duncan McPhie told the court Leanne was at home with her partner when the gang stormed in. Three children, including Leanne’s daughter Shelby, then 17, were there. McPhie added: “They entered as a 10-year-old girl made her way downstairs. A number of the men smashed ground-floor windows.
“One of them seized hold of the girl, placed a machete to her throat and stated, ‘Where’s your f ***** g dad?’”
Others in the house took “shelter in fear” by barricading themselves in a bedroom.
McPhie added: “They (the robbers) took hold of eight Bull Mastiff puppies. The men left, some on foot, others by car.”
Police found keys belonging to a Volkswagen Polo the gang had driven there. Murphy was later discovered outside a nearby McDonalds. Quizzed about the robbery, he added: “I don’t have the dogs.”
Kinsella was identified as the driver of the Volkswagen.
DNA also helped link him and Durnion to the raid.
Kinsella, of Motherwell, told police: “I know what this is about … those puppies. I gave my mate a loan of a machete and I left my phone in a car.”
The court was not told how many of the dogs were found.
But a Facebook post by a relative of Leanne’s weeks after the crime stated four had been returned home.
The court also heard how maintenance worker Kinsella had helped in another armed raid at the home of his ex-boss in Wishaw, Lanarkshire, five days earlier.
George Murray found three people smashing their way into his house. Kinsella was armed with a machete and yelled: “Safe – give us your safe.” They fled empty-handed.
Lord Beckett deferred sentencing for reports.