Dangerous Duo

A gun wielding father and son were convicted for armed robbery last Saturday.

The pair, who attempted armed robbery last October, were sentenced to a total of 33-years imprisonment.

Andrew Roberts, 42, and Mark Roberts, 23, were both convicted for possession of firearms with intent to commit robbery at Allied Irish Bank in Finchley Road.

The Central Criminal Court sentenced Andrew Roberts to a longer incarceration after his assault on a police officer during his attempted escape.

DS Neil Williamson of the Finchley Flying Squad, in reference to Mark Roberts firing shots while attempting escape said: “The sentence today should send a stark message to those engaged in this type of criminality".

This story was found through the local police press-release website which I was directed to after telephoning my local station. It was an easy piece to write as all the information necessary for short copy like this was already in the release.

One of the problems with this was that if I wanted more information I did not have access to it as the local police operate a no assistance to student writers policy. Next time I will use my part-time local Gazette paper position to extract more information.

The angle for the story jumped out at me right away as it seemed rather rare to have a father-son duo convicted of acting criminally together. Not only its rarity but also the tragic nature of a family in turmoil was a deciding factor in choosing this story.

My writing was as concise as possible due to the nature of the report. As it simply covered the court result and not the original crime story it would not be as interesting or the original, meaning the paper would not want as much of it.

Perhaps over sensationalising it by calling them a ‘duo’ sparked my ethical meter to life but not enough to warrant change.