A HEROIN addict who held an eight-year-old boy at knifepoint while robbing a newsagents has been jailed for five and a half years.

Stephen Swift held the nine-inch long weapon to the schoolboy's throat as he demanded newsagent Anthony Friar handed over cash. The terrified boy feared he was going to be killed.

Six foot five-inch Swift (31) escaped with £50 from Friar's newsagents, Sutton, but now faces the jail term after pleading guilty to robbery at Liverpool Crown Court.

He had pointed the kitchen knife at Mr Friar on September 27 last year after buying a bag of crisps.

Despite having the blade pointed in his chest and face the newsagent refused to hand out cash. But Swift then grabbed the eight-year-old boy who entered the shop with his ten-year-old brother. With the blade held at the boy's throat Mr Friar's wife, Jacqueline, came into the shop and handed Swift £50.

Swift, of no fixed address, let the boy go and ran off but was later tracked down after police interviewed witnesses who knew the robber by his nickname Swifty.

John Gibson, defending, said Swift had been to a special school and suffers from epilepsy. He was addicted to heroin at the time of the robbery, and had alcohol problems.

Swift had also claimed he did not intend to harm anyone despite being armed with the knife.