Axe To Boy's Throat

30 January 2013, 18:40 | Updated: 30 January 2013, 19:07

A father of two has described the moment armed thieves burst into his family home and threatened his nine-year-old son with an axe during a robbery in the Great Barr area of Birmingham.

Forty-year-old Rajinder Auluk says his son has been so badly affected by the attack that he no longer wants to live in the house and fears the robbers will return to kill him and his family.

Detectives are now launching a public appeal for help to catch the violent robbers, who struck at the Auluk family home on Newton Road at around 8pm on Monday the 28th of January.

They demanded car keys and cash as they threatened Mr Auluk's youngest child in front of him and his wife Baljit, 45 and their teenage son Jay, 16.

Mr Auluk, a self-employed property developer, said: "We had just finished eating when my nine-year-old son went into the front room to get ready to watch wrestling on the TV.

"I heard a loud crash at the front door and suddenly an explosion hit me in  the face as these men with axes and sledgehammers came piling through the door.

"I said, 'take what you want' but they carried on shouting and held an axe to my youngest's neck.

"It was true panic. I was angry and frightened, but my main concern was what they were going to do to the little guy, I thought he was going to cut him."

The men tried to get away in both family cars - a high-performance Nissan Pulsar GTR and a Mercedes CLK, but abandoned the Mercedes on the road outside the home.

Police were on the scene within five minutes but despite carrying out an extensive search of the area were unable to trace the offenders.

Detective Constable Derek Cole is leading the inquiry. He said: "We have got to find the people responsible for this robbery.

"This was a truly horrendous ordeal for the family and it's hard to imagine what they went through on Monday night.

"The thieves knew exactly what they were after; they wanted the family's high performance car and didn't care who they harmed in the process.

"They had complete disregard for the victims, holding an axe to a young boy's neck in front of his terrified family.

"I am now calling on the public to help us with this investigation.

"Did you see what happened on Newton Road on Monday evening? Did you see the men flee the scene? Perhaps you saw a group of men with a Nissan Pulsar GTR in the hours after the robbery?

"There will be people out there who know who is responsible for this robbery and I would also directly appeal to them to do the right thing and come forward."

Mr Auluk added: "I just want these men caught, before they do it to someone else."