A village postmaster was slashed with a knife after armed robbers targeted his Worcestershire premises, a court heard.

Two hooded men went into Blakedown Post Office, near Kidderminster, while a third man waited in a getaway car parked on the pavement.

One man grabbed Michael Cowling around the neck then deliberately drew a knife across his hand to show they "meant business", said prosecutor Rachel Brand QC.

His accomplice grabbed the postmaster's daughter Helen, who also worked there, and held a gun to her head.

The gang escaped with £3,211 from the till and drove off in a stolen Audi 80 car, Worcester Crown Court heard.

On trial are three Birmingham men: Theo Steadman, aged 24, of Heathy Rise, Woodgate Valley; Philip Berry, also 24, of Constitution Hill, Hockley; and Damien Gordon, 21, of Hindlow Close, Nechells.

They all deny robbery and possession of a firearm while committing an offence.

Miss Brand said the Audi used in the robbery on January 17 last year had false number plates and one letter was doctored further with black, insulating tape, bought from a Texaco garage in Kidderminster.

Within an hour of the robbery, the car allegedly pulled up outside a clothing shop near Berry's home and the three occupants got out and bought identical jackets.

The shop owner recognised Berry as a local man and she later picked him out on a police identity parade. Miss Cowling also identified Berry as the getaway driver after glimpsing him at the wheel.

Police later found the Audi parked outside Berry's home. He admitted using it but insisted he did not know it was stolen.

A fortnight later Berry and Steadman were arrested after police saw them in a stolen Ford Escort, said Miss Brand.

A roll of insulation tape found in the Escort was "the same kind" as tape used on the Audi's number plate.

Gordon, a friend of Steadman's, was arrested three months after the robbery. His fingerprint was on the Audi's black tape and his DNA was found on a cigarette end left in the car.

One jacket from the Constitution Hill shop was recovered from Berry's address and the remaining two jackets were at Gordon's home.

An air pistol recovered from a car used by Steadman was "identical in all respects" to the weapon held at the head of Miss Cowling, the jury heard.

The trial continues.