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Violent bank robber jailed for 18 years

24/12/2002

A violent armed robber who kidnapped a bank manageress and forced her to hand over £302,000 in cash was jailed yesterday for 18 years.

Ian Parkinson and co-defendant David Cullen, both from Salford, had denied being part of the three-man armed gang who carried out two raids netting a total of £374,000.

But while the jury convicted 27-year-old Parkinson, from Gerald Drive, of robbery, kidnap, and possession of an imitation firearm, 22-year-old Cullen from Heaton Street was cleared of all charges.

A tiny spot of saliva on a carpet in the boot of a bank manager's car sealed Parkinson's fate. The jury heard that cellular material, probably from saliva, had been found on carpet in the boot of bank manager Janet Wild's car.

DNA tests showed the profile matched that of Parkinson.

Parkinson had hidden away in the boot of Mrs Wild's Nissan Micra and then burst out through the rear parcel shelf as she drove to work with a colleague.

Mrs Wild almost crashed her car in terror as Parkinson started shouting and screaming at the women to stop the car.

When the car stopped Parkinson was joined by a second member of the gang who threatened the women with a gun.

They were then forced to drive to the Royal Bank of Scotland in Little Lever where the robbers stole £302,000 in cash.

Mrs Wild, cashier Kirsty Johnson and a third bank employee Nanouk Harper were then taken in the robber's stolen people carrier and left tied up outside Moses Gate country park.

Parkinson's barrister Mukhtar Hussain QC argued that police officers could have planted the DNA sample on the carpet or it could have been innocently contaminated through errors.

He said Parkinson had suffered memory impairment after he received a fractured skull in an incident outside a nightclub in 1998.

The court heard earlier that two robberies at Kearsley Post Officer and at the Royal Bank of Scotland in Little Lever, netted robbers £372,000 in cash.

In both cases the postmaster and the bank manager had been kidnapped at gunpoint, taken to where they worked and forced to open the safes.

In both robberies a member of the gang stowed away in the victim's car boots and burst out as they drove to work.

Parkinson and Cullen had been on trial at Bolton Crown Court. Both denied five charges of kidnapping, two counts of robbery and two charges of possessing an imitation firearm, namely a handgun, during the course of a robbery.

Wes Wright reports from Bolton Crown Court.