A Canvey man, Terry Smith, 51, has just been jailed for an absolute minimum of 12 years for a series of armed robberies. This includes the one at Rayleigh station where Rayleigh commuter Adam Mapleson was shot in the chest by one of Smith’s ‘colleagues’ . This was after Adam tried to help a female security guard and bodychecked one of the robbers. Adam needed 16 pints of blood and major surgery…. He was later made Rochford District’s Citizen Of The Year.
There’s a very good courtroom report from the BBC here
The Guardian explains Smith’s past history:
After being sentenced in June 1983 to 15 years for armed robbery, he escaped in a prison van in November 1984 and spent two years on the run. During his time as a fugitive he conceived his fourth child Sonny and committed more robberies before his arrest in June 1986, when he was given a further 16 years imprisonment at the Old Bailey.
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Smith was released on parole in 1995 before deciding to go straight. In 2004 he was part of a gang of reformed gangsters who took part in a Channel 4 programme called The Heist where the former crooks successfully kidnapped a ?1m racehorse called Lucky Harry.
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He has also appeared on the Sky programme Inside the Perfect Bank Robbery, on the BBC religious show The Big Question and as a consultant on a Spike Lee film The Insider.
The Times says about the sentence:
Yesterday Smith was given an indeterminate prison sentence, the judge saying that he should serve 12 years before being considered for parole.