A NEWSAGENT has spoken for the first time about the terrifying moment a masked robber threatened her with a 12-inch knife.

Jean Parker was alone in Mutters newsagent in St John’s, Worcester, early one morning in May, when 23-year-old Wayne Hale walked in wearing a scarf to hide his face. Brandishing a bread knife Hale stood at the counter and ordered Ms Parker into the staff room.

“I looked at him and I looked at this damn big knife,” said Ms Parker, speaking for the first time since Hale was sentenced to four years imprisonment.

“It just seemed so unreal. I think I actually laughed; I could not believe what was happening.

“He started thrusting the knife at me and told me to get out the back of the shop. He hadn’t explained what he wanted. All these other thoughts were going through my mind. Especially when he closed the door behind him so no one could see us.”

Inside the small staff room he ordered a shaking Ms Parker to open the safe.

When she could not remember where she had left the keys Hale marched her around the shop floor, with the knife pressed to her back, until she found them.

“He suddenly started to get concerned about me,” said Ms Parker.

“He asked me if I wanted a glass of water. He kept telling me to calm down and that he wasn’t going to hurt me.

“I told him, ‘How am I suppose to calm down – you’ve got a knife in my face’.”

When Hale saw customers coming into the store he pulled down his scarf in an attempt to look inconspicuous. He even called back to his petrified victim, “Bye mum. I love you”.

Those final moments were caught on CCTV and Hale was arrested two days later. He pleaded guilty to robbery and was sentenced to four years in jail at Worcester Crown Court last month.

The ordeal has left its mark on Ms Parker, who moved to Worcester in 2002 and who now wears a personal alarm at all times.

“I do look at people differently,” she said.

“But I’ve put too much into my business to walk away. I’m not going to let some misguided kid drive me out.”

And she has nothing but praise for West Mercia Police, who “kept her informed every step of the way”, and expressed huge gratitude to Mutters’ customers, shopkeepers and her “unbelievably supportive” staff Claire Taylor and Debbie Murphy.

“I wouldn’t want to be here without them,” said Ms Parker. “They aren’t just employees. They are my best friends.”