I feared stun gun gang had killed my unborn baby with 50,000-volt blast
IVF mum’s ordeal at hands of masked raiders
AFTER spending thousands of pounds of her savings on IVF treatment, Jacqui Young felt blessed to be told she was finally pregnant.
She and her husband, James, had known for some years they could not conceive naturally and had contemplated adoption, but only if their attempt at fertility treatment failed.
But within weeks of discovering the precious baby she longed for was on its way, she faced a horrific ordeal at the hands of a gang of masked robbers at her place of work – which led to her being ‘tasered’ with a 50,000-volt stun gun.
On Friday, her callous attackers were jailed for a total of 26-and-ahalf years at the High Court in Edinburgh, after the judge said their assault on Mrs Young was ‘particularly distressing’ because it led to concerns for her unborn child.
Baby Travis arrived safely in April despite the attack, but for Mrs Young the trauma of the stun gun
‘I fell instantly to the floor’
being used to immobilise her, and the effect it could have had on her pregnancy, still remains.
Last night, in an interview with The Scottish Mail on Sunday, she said: ‘They could easily have killed my baby. I can’t ever forgive them.’
The three raiders struck on Monday, October 5 last year, as Mrs Young, 31, and a colleague, Alexandra McMurray, 35, were opening the Original Factory Shop, in Kelso, Roxburghshire, at 9am. The thieves’ target was the weekend’s takings, locked up securely in the office safe.
Recalling the moment they burst into the shop, Mrs Young said: ‘I thought it was a joke at first. They had homemade balaclavas on, made from what looked like the sleeves of a jumper.
‘But they didn’t say anything, they just grabbed Alex. I saw the stun gun and she fell to the floor, lying there not moving. I’d no idea if she was alive or dead. It was terrifying.
‘I was behind the counter and didn’t see the other robber as he came towards me from the side. As far as I was concerned it was fight or flight and I tried to defend myself. That’s when I felt a sharp pain on my upper arm and a “zapping” sound. I fell instantly to the floor, losing all power in my muscles.’
When her mobility returned, she remembers her foot connecting with her attacker’s groin as she struggled with him on the floor, before being dragged across to the office. ‘I was thinking about my baby and terrified,’ she said. ‘They were holding the stun gun at Alex’s neck. As they dragged me into the back, I thought we were going to be raped or hurt badly. ‘One of them was struggling to get the safe open and shouted at me to do it. He had the key backwards.’
Minutes later, the robbers made off with more than £7,300 and a shocked Mrs Young pressed the panic button and phoned the police.
But as she contemplated the effects of the stun gun attack on her unborn child, and the large bruise spreading rapidly across her upper arm, she felt sick to her stomach.
She said: ‘I’d been having a difficult pregnancy already. I was worried about miscarriage by my 12-week scan and felt it was touch and go whether the baby would survive. The shop was robbed two weeks later.’
An ambulance took her to the Borders General Hospital in Melrose and that’s when she broke down. She said: ‘I think they could see the panic in my face. I was taken straight up to the maternity ward and they carried out an emergency scan. I can’t describe the relief I felt when I heard the baby’s heartbeat. I was smiling through the tears.’
A jury found Steven Modeste, 37, James Irvine, 54, and Anthony Kimber, 43, guilty of armed robbery and illegally possessing a stun gun, following an 11-day trial.
Facing them in court, Mrs Young said: ‘I had nightmares after the robbery. They were always the same – a man in a mask turning round and looking at me, before coming towards me. I’d wake up sweating. I had to get counselling to help, though even now, if I see a stun gun or someone wearing a balaclava on television, my heart gives a jolt.’
But she added: ‘I made a point of looking at them but it made me angry. They were emotionless. They even looked a bit bored.’
Modeste was jailed for eight years, Irvine for nine-and-a-half years and Kimber for nine years.
Welcoming the sentences, Mrs Young said: ‘Given what I’ve been through to have Travis, he really is my miracle baby. Those men acted without a thought for anyone but themselves. They could have taken my baby’s life that day and I’m so relieved they’ve been found guilty. They deserve everything they get.’