A VILLAGE postmaster told detectives how he feared for his life after being threatened with a sawn-off shotgun by two masked raiders.

Richard Watkins described how he tried to wrestle the gun from one of the men and then struck out with a lock knife after being struck on the head.

Mr Watkins, who runs the family stores and Post Office at Wolverley, near Kidderminster, stabbed 28-year-old Scott Griffiths three or four times. The raider's body was found in the back of a car a short time later near his home in Wall Heath.

Mr Watkins, 6ft 4in and 19-stone, was not called to give evidence in the trial, which is in its third week at Worcester Crown Court, but his statement was read to the jury by prosecution counsel, Mr Richard Latham QC.

In it, Mr Watkins said: "I have never experienced anything like this in my life before. Any actions I took were to safeguard my life."

Wayne Davies, 26, of Himley Road, Dudley, Michelle Sykes, 21, of Sudderley Gardens, Milking Bank, Gornal, Neal Frost, 33, of George Street, Wordsley, and Patrick Crane, 38, of no fixed address, plead not guilty to conspiracy to rob. Davies and Frost also deny having a sawn-off shotgun when committing an offence.

Mr Watkins told how he opened the stores and Post Office on June 20 last year and two strangers, one wearing a pulled-down baseball cap and the other a balaclava, ordered him to open the Post Office cubicle.

The threats petrified him and he described it as a harrowing experience. The gun was held about a foot from his face and was later used to hit him.

He said: "Regardless of the threats being made to my life, I would not let them steal the money which is mine and my family's livelihood."

After he was struck, he grabbed the barrel of the gun with one hand and struck out with the knife with his other hand. He stabbed the raider up to four times. "I did this because I was scared to death," he said. "I did it to make him let go of the gun. It was a very traumatic few seconds."

Mr Watkins, who later had three stitches put in his head wound, saw the injured raider staggering about and then being pulled into the getaway car by an accomplice. The shotgun and a holdall were left behind.

The trial continues.