Ghanaian Gang in UK jailed over armed burglaries

The gang wrongly thought the flat was a drugs den full of cash

Five men have been sentenced for their roles in two armed raids which left a woman disabled for life.

Patricia Osie-Assiby, 34, leapt 30ft to escape the gang during the raid in Hendon, north London, in August 2005.

The flat was raided again three days later and a gang held a girl, 13, at gunpoint to demand money.

Eric Damoa, Frank Agyemang, Charles Antwi, Nigel Prescod and Daniel Mooney, all from London, were jailed for between two and seven years.

Death threats

The gang had been under the false belief that a "large sum" of drug-dealing cash was in the flat, Harrow Crown Court heard.

Ghanaian-born Ms Osie-Assiby, who lives in Italy, was staying with relatives while attending a three-month teacher training course.

Agyemang was the gang's ringleader, the court heard

She was beaten and forced into her bedroom where she seized an opportunity to escape, the court was told.

She climbed on to a bed that had been overturned by the burglars and stepped on to the window sill of the third-storey flat.

The men fled, but Damoa returned three days later with others and threatened the family, including a 13-year-old girl, with a gun.

Ms Osie-Assiby suffered three fractured vertebrae in the plunge.

She was told her condition would worsen and eventually she would have to use a wheelchair.

Judge Alan Greenwood said Ms Osie-Assiby had been devastated by the raid.

"It has affected every aspect of her life, her work as a teacher, her life as a mother," he said.

"These were extremely serious offences carried out by a criminal gang, who were well organised and planned the offences carefully."

Ringleader

Damoa, 29, from Canning Town, east London, was jailed for seven years for two counts of aggravated burglary and false imprisonment.

Ring-leader Agyemang, 30, from Leytonstone, who was involved in the second attack, was found guilty of aggravated burglary. He also received seven years.

Police want to speak to Kenneth Ohene-Darko

Antwi, 31, from Pinner, was convicted of perverting the course of justice and was sentenced to two years in prison.

Prescod, 26, from Hackney, east London, who pleaded guilty to taking part in the first raid, was jailed for five years.

Mooney, from Southgate, north London, who admitted taking part in the second burglary, was jailed for just under eight years.

Police want to trace Kenneth Ohene-Darko, 32, from Slough, Berkshire, in connection with the raids.