Carluke men jailed for string of armed robberies

Two men who carried out two terrifying armed robberies on lone women store workers were yesterday jailed for a total of 12 years.

56 year-old James McDowell 50 year-old and Robert Donnelly both from Carluke, initially struck at the Wee 10 O'Clock Shop in Shotts, Lanarkshire last December.

They escaped with more than £7,000 after threatening a worker with metal bars.

McDowell and Donnelly targeted the 10 O'Clock Shop in nearby Wishaw a fortnight later and made off with £1,000.

The women involved in each raid were left badly traumatised

McDowell and Donnelly admitted the two assault and robberies.

Judge Lord Matthews jailed McDowell for seven years and Donnelly for five years and three months.

Lord Matthews told them: "People who work in shops perform a valuable service in the community and must be protected by the courts."

The woman worker in the first robbery was closing up when McDowell and Donnelly, who were masked and armed stormed in.

The petrified woman was told at one point: “This bar is going round your head.”

The duo escaped from the newsagent with cash as well as cigarettes.

Prosecutor Steven Borthwick said the victim has since left her job and “refuses to go back to the area”.

He added: “She suffers flashbacks, panic attacks and sleeplessness.”

The woman in the second raid was at work alone when McDowell and Donnelly came in yelling: “Where's the money? Where's the safe?”

They then escaped with the money.

The court heard the woman had to take a month off work as a result.

Mr Borthwick said McDowell had previously been jailed for nine years for attempted murder.

Donnelly was locked up for class A drug supply in 2007.