'Hired muscle' Zak Pywell jailed for armed robbery on Boston family

Zak Pywell was jailed for 11 years and six months at Lincoln Crown Court

A robber who was part of an armed gang which put a Lincolnshire family through a "terrifying ordeal" has been jailed for 11 years and six months.

Zak Pywell, 29, and five others targeted the Boston home on 11 July 2017.

Four members of the family were cut with knives and £8,000 in cash was stolen, Lincoln Crown Court heard.

On Monday, Pywell, of Birley Spa Lane, Sheffield, was convicted of four counts of robbery at the same court.

Prosecutors described Pywell as the "hired muscle".

Judge James House KC said the family had been put through a "terrifying ordeal".

He added: "There was the use of gratuitous violence."

The family were market traders and the gang had discovered they kept large sums of cash in the house, the court heard.

Traffic cameras showed a Mercedes van and a VW Golf had travelled from the Nottingham and Sheffield areas to carry out the robbery.

The six men, including Pywell, wore balaclavas and carried knives as they forced their way into the home before holding the mother hostage in a bedroom.

The father was struck with a hatchet and slashed repeatedly on his body and face. The couple's three adult children were also cut.

Pywell had a number of previous convictions and was sentenced to four years and three months for stabbing two strangers in 2018.

A victim impact statement from the family was read out in court in which they said there lives "will never be the same again".