Gang of violent lorry robbers jailed

A gang of violent robbers who carried out a botched lorry jacking in which a father was stabbed to death in front of his teenage son were today behind bars.

There were wails from the public gallery as Spencer Howell was given 10 years in custody, Danny White five years and Troy Skidmore four.

The full details of the fatal lorry jacking can today be revealed for the first time, after the Express & Star challenged reporting restrictions protecting 17-year-old Skidmore's identity.

He was just 15 when he was recruited by his father, Dean Skidmore, for a night of lorry thefts across the West Midlands. After targeting HGVs in Willenhall and Erdington, they moved on to Coleshill, Warwickshire.

Howell, aged 36, White and the two Skidmores ambushed Greek lorry driver Vasilius Nikolakopoulos outside International Forwarding Ltd at 6am.

The 45-year-old driver was tricked into leaving his cab by White, who was posing as security guard, beaten up and attacked with pickaxe handles in a side street.

It was during this ambush that father-of-three Mr Nikolakopoulos stabbed 36-year-old Dean Skidmore in the groin, with the knife he used to cut bread in his cab.

Howell, of Wednesbury, White, of Bilston, and Troy Skidmore, of Brierley Hill, were sentenced by Judge Marten Coates at Coventry Crown Court yesterday.

White, aged 20, and Skidmore, who has the word 'Dad' tattooed across his neck in memory of his father, cried as they were sent down.

Judge Coates added the date of the crime, February 26, 2009, came in the midst of a "plague" of lorry thefts and robberies across the West Midlands.