A pub landlady was left trapped behind a door as two axe-wielding burglars raided her pub.
Natasha Daley was asleep in the upstairs of Ennelle’s Glass House in Southport after staying late to do paperwork.
At around 4am, two men used a paving slab to break through a window of the pub in Bank Passage, off Lord Street.
Steven Lloyd, 43, and Leon Shaw, 45 , who were believed to be under the influence of drugs at the time then trashed the pub while looking for things to steal.
The pair smashed a jukebox with the axe before tipping over a fruit machine and destroying it as well - all while Natasha watched them on CCTV.
Terrified Natasha told the ECHO that she checked the cameras as soon as she was woken by the smash of the window.
She said: "I looked at the CCTV cameras and could see two men trying to get into the jukebox with a set of keys.
"When it didn’t open one of them pulled out an axe out from his trousers and started smashing it to pieces.
“He looked like an absolute maniac."
Natasha called 999 as soon as she spotted Lloyd and Shaw on camera and stayed on the phone to the call handler until police arrived eight minutes later.
She said: "It felt like a lifetime.
“After about five minutes the two men moved to the next floor up; the floor underneath where I was."
The raiders then proceeded to walk down a corridor to the toilets, opening doors.
Natasha watched them on CCTV and said her heart was racing as the next door was for the room she was in.
She said: “The call operator told me to barricade myself in the room but I didn’t have anything that I could pick up fast enough.
"I saw them kicking the door and the first thing I did was run to the window but I wouldn’t have been able to get it open fast enough because as I looked back at the camera and I could see the door going through and both men entering - one of whom was holding the axe.”
The only thing between her and the intruders was a set of stairs and she was hiding behind the next door.
The call operator told her to stay where she was but she thought she would be trapped in a room with two crazy men with an axe.
She said: “I don’t know what came over me but, I felt like I had no other choice but to confront them so.
"I opened the door and started screaming as loud as I could – from the bottom of my chest.
“As far as I was concerned I was screaming for my life.
“Luckily enough this deterred them both and they ran down the back down the stairs and out of the fire exit door and straight to the police where they were arrested. I ran straight out after them still screaming in pure panic.”
A police officer said that Shaw appeared under the influence of drugs and was “disorientated and unsteady on his feet”.
She heard something hit the ground as he dropped the axe and he also had gloves and cash in a bag.
Lloyd was detained by another officer and was said to be sweating profusely and staring into space, “almost zombie-like”.
He had a rucksack containing bottles of alcohol, cash, gloves and two tablets, which he confirmed in Liverpool Crown Court Court were diazepam.
The pair plead guilty and were sentenced last Wednesday.
Lloyd, of Arlington Close, Hither Green, London, admitted burglary and possessing a bladed article.
Shaw, of Scarisbrick Avenue, Southport, admitted burglary and possessing an offensive weapon.
Lloyd confessed during questioning that he was a drug addict “with a two bag a day habit” and that he gave Shaw the axe.
He said he initially refused when Shaw asked him did he “want to do a graft” and later agreed after drinking more alcohol.
He has 11 previous convictions for 27 offences include theft, drug possession and burglary.
Shaw has 55 previous convictions for 142 offences include theft, drug matters and going equipped for burglary.
Natasha told the court the raid left her struggling to sleep, suffering nightmares and frightened of break-ins.
She and her partner have a young son and opened the bar “to do good for our family and community”.
Judge Potter who jailed Llyod and Shaw for 20 months each said Natasha gave “powerful evidence” and had been left “extremely fearful”.
Judge Potter told the villains: “She and her partner have set up in good faith this business in Southport, to do good to the people of that town.
“You breached the trust and care that people had in that business.”
