House robbers jailed for 17 years

Thomas and Sarah Williams were tied up during the raid on their home

Two men have each been jailed for 17 years for a raid on a house in West Sussex in which a couple were tied up while their home was ransacked.

Christopher Doughty, 48, and Wolfgang Schmelz, 58, both of Southampton, were found guilty of the £300,000 robbery in a trial at Hove Crown Court.

Jewellery and a Vauxhall Vectra car were stolen in the raid at Aldsworth House near Chichester on 4 June 2006.

Thomas and Sarah Williams were tied up and threatened by the masked robbers.

I don't wish them ill, I just wish them not to do it to anybody else Sarah Williams

Doughty and Schmelz attacked the couple, and spent five hours going from room to room taking valuables.

Mr Williams, then 72 - who was hit with a truncheon and kicked - said: "They just quietly looted the house, basically."

His wife described it as a "like watching an horrific nightmare-type film" and said she was afraid they would be killed.

"I just feel anybody who can inflict this kind of misery on other people has got to be extremely unhappy," said Mrs Williams, who was 67 at the time of the attack.

"I'm very sorry they've got to go to jail. I don't wish them ill, I just wish them not to do it to anybody else."

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