A MAN is standing trial accused of helping to plan a robbery where a woman was tied to her stairs with a pillow over her face. 

Christopher Doughty is accused of conspiring with Eriks Valants and Jed Martin to rob the home of Susan Hunt in Leckford on March 23, 2020. He denies the charge.

The trial, at Winchester Crown Court, started on Wednesday, November 8. 

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On the second day of the trial, the jury was shown a police interview of Mrs Hunt shortly after the robbery. She told officers that she was bound to her stairs and had a pillowcase thrown over her head while men ransacked her home.

Mrs Hunt said: “I was woken up from a deep sleep in the early hours. They shone a torch in my face and told me to get up. They asked me where the safe was.

“They told me to go downstairs and they put tape around my hands and put a pillowcase over my head.

“It felt as though they were in the house for ages. Only one of them talked to me. When they left, I pulled the pillowcase off my head. I tried to get the tape off my hands, then called 999. 

“They have taken all my jewellery. When they left, they brought me three bottles of water, yoghurt, strawberries and raspberries from the fridge. One of them told me he wasn't a cruel man."

In April 2021, Valants and Martin were jailed for 10 years.

Doughty's trial continues.