A pair of masked burglars have been jailed after a man was forced to jump out of his own upstairs window to escape them during a violent break‑in.
The victim was at home in Canterbury Close, Nuthall, on June 25, 2025 last year when three men – all wearing gloves and balaclavas – smashed their way inside. At least one was armed with a hammer. Faced with the terrifying scene, the man hurled himself from an upstairs window, breaking his leg as he hit the ground.
While he lay injured outside, the intruders – John McNee, Craig Morgan and a third man – tried and failed to steal a high‑value car from the driveway before fleeing with £500 in cash and a mobile phone.
Detectives later identified McNee and Morgan through CCTV and mobile phone data placing them in the area. They were also linked to a stolen car used in the burglary, which had travelled in convoy with a vehicle registered to McNee. Officers then uncovered damning CCTV from McNee’s own home showing the pair together immediately before and after the break‑in.
McNee, 46, of Tunstall Crescent, Nottingham, and Morgan, 53, of Lymn Avenue, Gedling, both admitted burglary. A third suspect was charged but not convicted.
McNee also pleaded guilty to intimidating a witness after phoning a relative of the victim, and to a separate burglary in Nottingham city centre in September 2023.
At Nottingham Crown Court on Tuesday, McNee was jailed for nine years and Morgan for five.
Detective Constable Tony Tonks said the victim had been “simply going about his daily business” when confronted by masked men, adding that the pair “hadn’t reckoned on the determination” of the investigative team who built an “utterly compelling case”.
