A MASKED robber has been jailed after raiding a post office and threatening a couple he used to work for as a paper boy.

Matthew Steven Johnston donned a balaclava and demanded money from long-serving Eggborough postmistress Jean Kinnear by threatening to hit her face with a pole shortly after she opened her store on April 15, said Helen Wheatley, prosecuting.

But the 22-year-old raider was foiled by Mrs Kinnear’s husband Ian, who grabbed the stick and, despite being knocked over, managed to disarm him.

Jonhston had taken a cocktail of drugs and drunk ten lagers before the raid.

As he fled empty-handed, a motorist outside alerted police and recognised him as a drinker in a local pub.

Later the same day, Johnston returned to the post office to apologise. He was arrested shortly afterwards.

Mark Thompson, for Johnston, said his client could not explain why he had tried to rob the couple, for whom he had worked as a paper boy in the past. Mr and Mrs Kinnear, who are in their sixties, have run the post office for 20 years.

“Local shops and post offices are, in my judgement, at the very heart of local communities and people who run these shops deserve the protection of these courts.

“They are going to get it in this case,” Recorder Andrew Haslam told Johnston.

The judge said Mrs Kinnear had been “absolutely terrified” when Johnstone demanded money while holding a wooden pole just inches from her face.

Johnston, 22, of Green Acres, Eggborough, pleaded guilty to attempted robbery on April 15 and was jailed for 28 months.

Mrs Wheatley said a friend had warned Johnston not to carry out the raid, but he had gone ahead anyway.

Mr Thompson said Johnston had “brought shame upon his family who are a hard-working family, who had lived in the area for many, many years.”

Johnston had grown up in and around Eggborough.

It was to his credit that he had gone back to apologise afterwards and had voluntarily handed himself in.