ARE you "Lee's" mother? That is the latest appeal from police investigating a dramatic attempted robbery at a York newsagent.

Violent scenes broke out in the Semark News shop, in Scarborough Terrace, off Bootham, earlier this month when two knife-wielding raiders attempted to take cash from the till.

But the youths reckoned without plucky newsagent Helen Semark, who grabbed a wooden pole and used it to beat them off.

Now police have launched a new appeal after a woman came into the shop on Friday and told owner Kevin Semark she feared one of the boys could be her son - but left without saying who she was.

After the attempted robbery, on January 12, police released CCTV video footage, in which one of the raiders is heard to call the other "Lee".

DC Craig Wilson, from York CID, said the woman had gone into the shop on Friday and questioned Mr Semark about the incident after the video footage was shown on television.

She told the owner she feared her son, who is called Lee, could have been one of the youths involved.

DC Wilson said: "I'd like to appeal to this lady to ring me in confidence.

"We can speak and try to ascertain if it's her son who's involved in this incident and try to put her mind at ease.

"If it is her son, he may go on to commit other offences where innocent people may be hurt, and while possibly doing those offences he may be hurt.

"I'd ask that she searches her conscience and comes forward."

Mr Semark described how the woman, who he did not recognise, came into his shop on Friday with a group of friends.

When the shop was nearly empty, she asked to talk to him about the attempted robbery of a week before, asking detailed questions about what had happened and how the youths were dressed.

Mr Semark today backed police calls appealing for the woman to go to the police.

"We've had four particularly serious events here - we've had a few violent scenes so we're used to it, but it doesn't mean to say we want it to happen again," Mr Semark said.

The woman who went into Semark News is asked to phone DC Wilson on 0845 6060247.

She can contact him in confidence, and is asked to leave her details with detectives in the event DC Wilson is not available.

Updated: 11:09 Monday, January 23, 2006