Halifax carjacking pair jailed after targeting mother and baby Published duration 13 February 2017

image copyright West Yorkshire Police image caption Frank Simpson, 36, and Jordan Hartley, 27, were each jailed for 12 years

Two robbers who pointed an imitation handgun at a mother while attempting to steal a car with her nine-month-old baby in the back have been jailed.

Mother-of-two Emma Taylor was confronted by Frank Simpson, 36, and Jordan Hartley, 27, at Sainsbury's car park in Halifax on 1 December.

Bradford Crown Court heard she was threatened with a black BB gun before they grabbed the keys to her VW car with her baby son in the back.

The pair were each jailed for 12 years.

During the "terrifying" incident on Wade Street, the court heard the car was accidently locked with the infant inside.

Simpson, of Carr House Road, Halifax, and Hartley, of Denbrook Close, Bradford, fled after the mother began to shout and scream.

'I was desperate'

In a statement read out in court, Ms Taylor said: "I was shouting 'I've got a baby!' and still he threatened me with the gun.

"At one point I said 'Let me get my baby out', I was so desperate.

"It seemed to go on for a long time and I did wonder why he didn't shoot me.

"I do think what would have happened if they drove off with [the baby] in the car. It doesn't bear thinking about."

The pair fled in a stolen Ford Fiesta, which they had carjacked from a woman nine hours earlier.

Sentencing them, Judge Neil Davey QC said: "I have no doubt that at least one of you, being a father, will understand just how terrifying it must have been for her to witness her baby being put in such danger by a man brandishing a gun."

The court heard the defendants were fuelled by drugs and alcohol. They armed themselves with a fake gun and targeted lone women.

Both admitted two robbery offences and possessing an imitation firearm.