HOUSING association tenants held the doors of their bedsits shut in terror after men wearing pillow case hoods and armed with an axe forced their way into the house.

Brian O'Dell, aged 40, of Nightingale House, Stanley Road, Worcester, was jailed for 18 months after admitting affray at Warwick Crown Court. It was his 40th court appearance.

Lee Marklew, prosecuting, said that in September last year O'Dell and Neil Cowley turned up at a house in Clopton Road, Stratford, which is divided into bedsits.

Tenant Jody Palmer was returning with her boyfriend and saw O'Dell, who had also lived there previously, and Cowley outside.

After she had gone inside she heard them shouting for another resident, Trevor Rivett who looked out of his window but could not see anyone.

Forced open

But a few minutes later the front door of the house was forced open by men wearing pillow cases over their heads with holes cut out for their eyes.

They all shut themselves in their rooms and, as Miss Palmer phoned for the police, the intruders began using an axe to try to break open the internal doors, but then fled.

The police arrived and searched the area, and found Cowley hiding under a canal bridge and O'Dell under a bush, and also recovered the axe and the pillow cases.

When he was questioned O'Dell claimed the incident had nothing to do with him, and that he had seen two men running past him heading towards the canal.

Mr Marklew added that he had two previous convictions for robbery and many for burglary.

Asking the judge to consider making a drug treatment and testing order, Nick Devine, defending, said: "He accepts involvement. He was present and involved in the sense that Cowley asked him to take him to the address.

"There would appear to have been some sort of dispute over some drugs deal which involved Cowley, and he knew Cowley was not going there for a friendly chat."

Jailing O'Dell, Judge Marten Coates told him: "By your plea you acknowledge you played your part in what must have been a frightening attack on a residential property.

"I can only protect the public from you by ordering you to serve a period in custody."