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AN INNOCENT family suffered “every householder’s worst nightmare” when an eight-strong gun-wielding gang broke into their home in the middle of the night and attacked them.

During their ordeal, the couple were threatened with the imitation firearm, assaulted and robbed.

The woman’s two terrified young kids, aged about four or five, were also present throughout the late-night attack.

Jailing gang members Dominic Daniels, 21, for 10 years and four months and Callum Hannon, 19, for seven-and-a-half years, Judge Mark Brown told them it was a “cowardly, wicked attack”.

He added: “It’s an occupied householder’s worse nightmare.

“It is the apparent random nature of this incident that makes it the worst nightmare for any householder – this situation could literally happen to anyone.

“There was no apparent reason.”

Geoffrey Greenwood, prosecuting, told how the family were asleep in their home in Dobson Street, Everton, when they heard loud banging between midnight and 1am on June 15 last year.

The man went downstairs to investigate and discovered the gang breaking in through the front door. He desperately attempted to hold it closed, but a gun was pointed at him.

His next recollection was laying in the street being beaten and hearing the words “Give him a leg shot”.

Meanwhile several of the gang went into the house where the woman was attempting to call the police. She was punched and ordered to go downstairs despite the distress of her two small kids.

Once downstairs she was punched and put in a headlock, all while she held her son, while the raiders demanded to know where the cash and car keys were kept.

She eventually managed to dash to a neighbour’s home.

But even as she reached the house of her neighbour Hannon chased after her and punched her Good Samaritan neighbour to the face, causing a nasty cut to her mouth.

While that was happening another neighbour saw the man being “severely battered”.

They described how one of his attackers briefly stopped the attack to be sick, before returning and telling an accomplice: “Just f****** shoot him in the legs”.

That was later proved to be Daniels after DNA taken from the vomit was matched to him. Hannon was identified by the woman.

Both men admitted robbery and possession of an imitation firearm with intent to commit an offence. Hannon, now of Harlesden Road, London, also admitted assaulting the woman.

Daniels, of Cherry Lane, Walton, also admitted to an affray on March 25, 2009, when he was part of a gang who attempted to attack a delivery driver after he made a drop off. Daniels also pleaded guilty to escape after he fled from a police guard at Liverpool’s Royal Hospital while his mum was visiting on April 6, 2009. He was still on the run at the time of the raid.

Julian Nutter, defending Hannon, who was 17 at the time of the raid, said he had been “under the thrall and influence” of his older and more criminally sophisticated accomplices.

He told how the teenager had turned his life around since the incident with the support of his “decent, honest” girlfriend and her mum.

Mr Nutter said Hannon had moved to London, had got a job and was now “apparently a respectable member of society”.

Det Chief Insp Chris Green said: “This was a despicable attack against an innocent family whose lives have changed as a result of it.

“This sentence reflects the serious nature of this assault and we hope it send out a clear message to anyone willing to commit such violent crimes that we will put you before the courts.

“Although the outcome can’t undo the hurt caused by Hannon and Daniels we hope it will bring the victims some closure. They have been very courageous throughout this investigation.”

news@liverpool.com