By Rachel Hovenden

KIDNAP

Three men robbed a mother and her teenage daughter with a foot long sword before
dragging them into woodland, a court heard.

Leonard Nshindano, 25, threatened the women with the sword as they waited for a bus.

On the evening of 8 November Joan Glasgow-Ashton and her 19-year-old daughter,

Gabrielle Anderson, were waiting at a bus shelter on Leighton Road. Three men
approached them and asked the time of the bus.

But then Nshindano pulled out the sword and held it to the throat of Mrs Glasgow-
Ashton. The sword had a distinctive snakeskin design and lacing around the handle.
Nshindano said: “Give me your mobile phone and your money.”

Mrs Glasgow-Ashton handed one of the men her phone and purse. Nshindano added: “If
you cry or scream I’ll shank you.” One of the men searched Miss Anderson’s handbag,
patted her clothing and told her to give him her mobile. She did not have one but they
took her pencil case and handbag instead, said John Tophan, prosecuting.

One of the men said: “Sorry we don’t want to do this to you because you’re our people
but we have to survive.”

Then the men dragged them into some nearby woods. But someone came walking nearby
with a bright torch. One of the men holding the two women shouted “sniper”,
Nshindano’s nickname. Nshindano, went to have a look and after a scuffle shouted
“shank, shank, shank”. But the women got way and ran to their house, Sheffield Crown
Court heard.

The next morning, police found Nshindano at a flat on Lapstock Road, 400 metres from
the wood. He was lying on a mattress as if he had been there over night.

Police found the sword lying under an open pizza box outside. When police went to the
wood they found Gabrielle’s pencil case, glove, red avon bag and plastic shopping bag.
They also found Mrs Glasgow-Ashton’s black handbag and mobile, Mr Tophan told the
court.

The women both picked out Nshindano from an identity parade video. But they both told
police they weren’t 100 per cent sure if it was the person who robbed them. The crown
said their uncertainty was because it was dark when the crime happened.

Only six days earlier Nshindano threatened Nicholas Mashatize with the sword, at the St
Anne’s programme hostel on Beighton Road, where both men had been living. Mr
Mashatize took refuge behind a wheelie bin and called the police, the court heard.

The next day Nshindano sent Mr Mashatize a text saying: “Yo bruv it’s sniper. Call me
please.” He then called Mr Mashatize asking him not to press charges. Nshindano left the
St Anne’s hostel after the incident.
MF
Nshindano, of Woodop Road, denies charges of affray, two charges of having an
offensive weapon, two of kidnap, and two of robbery.

The trial continues.

ENDS