A 45-year-old man who "blurred the line between reality and make believe" and adopted the character of magical elf Buho from Shadowrun to rob a Belfast lingerie store at knifepoint, has been brought down to Earth with a two-year jail sentence, The Times reports.

Robert Boyd, of Carrickfergus, Co Antrim, told Belfast Crown Court at a hearing in March he'd been involved in the fantasy role-playing computer game when he slipped into a blond Harpo Marx wig, glasses, and beanie hat, "threatened a female shop assistant and made off with bras, knickers, suspender belts, and stockings worth £250".

This explanantion failed to impress the jury, who found the former lab assistant at Queen's University guilty by a wholly realistic 10-2 majority.

Boyd's defence lawyer pleaded for leniency at a sentencing hearing last Friday, explaining his client was now a "figure of ridicule whose life was in tatters". Judge Patrick Lynch insisted on a prison sentence, and told the father of one: "Whatever I do to you today, you will have to live with the consequences of your actions for the rest of your life." ®