'UNIMAGINABLE TERROR'

Bride-to-be feared gun raiders would rape her in front of kids as they stole £100k gems in terrifying raid

A BRIDE-to-be feared armed robbers were going to rape her in front of her kids as they stole £100,000 worth of jewellery during a terrifying raid.

Stacey Tomlinson, 35, was tricked into opening her front door to the attackers at her £1million home when they falsely claimed they had been hired to do some guttering work.

During the horrifying raid last November, she was grabbed by the neck and threatened with a gun in front of her young children now aged four and 10-months-old.

The mum was marched into the living room and ordered to sit on the sofa, and when her children started to cry she told them the raiders were there to help pick out Christmas gifts.

Stacey told the Manchester Evening News: "One guy had me downstairs and the other was upstairs, I thought, ‘What else do they want me for?'

"All I thought was I was going to get raped. I sent my daughter into the bedroom; she was a month away from being four and I didn’t want her to see it.

"I just didn’t want her to see the absolute terror I was going to endure. I asked her to play in her room."

TERRIFYING RAID

Stacey, of Bolton, Greater Manchester, added: "You don’t even think about yourself.

"All I was focused on was that she was protected.”

One of the robbers showed a firearm by opening his coat pocket and saying: "Please don't make me use this."

At the time the victim's terrified daughters were aged three and three months were forced to cower from raiders at their home.

Stacey attempted to distract her older child by showing possible gifts on her laptop presents she planned to buy for Christmas but the youngster sobbed: "Mummy I don't like it" as one of the robbers stroked the little girl's hair.

The pair got away with Miss Tomlinson's three carat teardrop diamond engagement ring worth £45,000, another two carat diamond ring worth £35,000 plus two other rings worth £15,000, a £2,500 Tag Heur watch.

They also swiped a Bulgari watch and a silver goblet which had been bought as a christening present for one of the children.

All I thought was I was going to get raped.Stacey Tomlinson

Police later arrested former hotel manager Peter Paradi, 44, over the robbery after a tip off he was staying at a rented house 60 miles away in Wrexham.

He was already wanted over a string of gem raids at other luxury homes he had targeted across the North West.

In a statement, Miss Tomlinson, who is in her 30s and whose fiancee Nick Astley runs a successful private hire taxi firm and property company, said: "I felt broken by what happened. My biggest achievement in life has to become a mother and my only thought that day was to look after my children during this incident. I feared I would be tied to a radiator and I feared for the girls.

"Since the incident, all the family sleep in the same room and our three year old will not sleep alone. She has to sleep with us and she hasn't been back into her own room since this took place."

At Bolton Crown Court, Hungarian national Paradi, a father of one from Cheetham Hill was jailed for 15 years after he admitted robbery plus 11 charges of burglary, three of attempted burglary and making off without payment. He will deported from the UK after his release. Another suspect thought to be Russian is still being hunted over the robbery.

The court heard Budapest-born Paradi had a waged a "campaign of burglary" against wealthy victims between September and October last year whom he believed kept expensive jewellery at their properties.

The armed robbery occurred at 9am on November 22 after he and his accomplice knocked at the door of the home Stacey shares with 54-year old Mr Astley.

Paradi was held six days later but gave no comment in police interview. It emerged he had previous convictions for burglary when he was living in the USA between 1995 and 2003 before he moved to the UK.