Men carrying baseball bats and knives jailed for storming Gosport house with women and children forced to barricade themselves in room

Nico Alexander, 28, and Louie Comley, 24, stormed round to the Grove Road house in Gosport on May 2 last year at around 11pm. They were looking for her current partner and left the family ‘screaming’ in fear.

The men, who were joined by accomplice and getaway driver Daniel Watson, 28, were shouting ‘where is he’ as they rampaged through the house looking for the female occupant’s current boyfriend, who the attackers ‘disapproved’ of.

The woman was also at her house with a female friend and her child during the ambush.

Recorder Lucinda Davis told the defendants at Portsmouth Crown Court: ‘You smashed double-glazing windows and then broke into the house where there were three young children. They were screaming and petrified.

‘The women removed the children and ran upstairs to the bedroom and barricaded themselves in. You were shouting “where is he?” and searched the house.

‘You continued to attack the bedroom door where they were in. Such was the fear that the two of the children wet themselves.’

The man they were looking for fled before the defendants made off after stealing £220 in cash and cigarettes, as well as destroying mobile phones.

Following a police investigation, the three defendants were charged with aggravated burglary.

Comley, of Whippingham Close, Cosham, admitted the offence at court in October last year.

Watson, of Anns Hill Road, Gosport, and Alexander, formerly of Gosport, initially denied the offence but both entered a guilty plea at court in December.

The victim and her children have since moved away amid fears of living at the property, causing a significant impact on their lives.

Alexander was jailed for 57 months, while Comley was jailed for 54 months and Watson for 38 months.

Following the sentencing, detective constable Keeka Way said: ‘This was a frightening incident which left the occupants of the house, including young children, understandably very shaken and upset.

‘I’m pleased that the hard work that went into this investigation has resulted in these three individuals being brought to justice for their crime.’

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At the same court sentence, Alexander was also handed a 26-month sentence for a robbery which took place in Grange Crescent, Gosport, on March 2, 2019. The sentence will run concurrent to the 57 months he was handed for aggravated burglary.

During the robbery, Alexander and co-defendant Ricki Tribble went round to a Gosport house after a female friend asked them to retrieve £50 from a man in his 20s who she had invited over.

Recorder Davis said all men were potentially ‘stitched up’ by the woman after she had lured them to the flat before things turned ugly for the innocent victim.

The man, who had met the woman earlier in the evening in a bar before being invited over, was grabbed around the neck causing him to ‘struggle to breathe’.

In his statement to the court, he admitted he thought he ‘would die’ before he was repeatedly punched by the pair - with Tribble taking the lead.

It left the victim with broken front teeth and a fractured jaw resulting in an operation to fit a plate.

‘I was so confused and did not know what was happening to me. I did not know who the people were,’ the victim said.

The men searched his pockets and took his phone.

Both were sentenced for one count of robbery, and 36-year-old Tribble, of Stoke Road, Gosport, was jailed for 49 months after previously admitting the offence.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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