A GANG of sword-wielding burglars have been jailed after bursting into a house where five school girls were having a sleepover.

One thug threatened to slit two of the terrified teenage girls’ throats if they screamed during the chaotic moments after intruders stormed into the house in St Helens town centre.

The burglars’ intended target was the home of a local drug dealer but they got the wrong address, and instead brought terror to the innocent girls, all aged 14.

Prosecuting at Liverpool Crown Court, Rob Jansen explained the friends had been having the sleepover at one of the girls’ homes on the evening of Friday, November 12 last year, and her mother was out at the time.

He told how Danny Jennings, Joseph Lowe and Craig Taylor – who were also armed with a metal bar and a claw hammer – invaded the house at about 7.30pm, yelling “where’s the weed”, a reference to the drug cannabis.

But even though one of the petrified girls told them they had the wrong house the men stayed in the terraced property for up to seven minutes.

The gang – wearing dark clothing and scarves over their faces - made chilling threats, smashed a laptop, destroyed the landline phone, and Jennings even struck a pet dog with his sword.

Prosecuting, Rob Jansen said: “Two of the girls who were in the living room were terrified. One of the men said: ‘make sure they don’t move’.

“Then a tall man in the group said: ‘Just you scream or anything and I will slit your throat’.

“Two of the friends who were upstairs thought the shouts were coming from the television their friends were watching in the living room - but they soon realised this wasn’t the case.

“One of the girls (who had locked themselves in an upstairs bathroom) pointed to the other and told her to phone the police.

“She described to police there were men in the house but that she couldn’t see what was going on. Patrols were sent immediately.”

Officers raced to the house, where it is alleged Jennings brandished the sword at one PC. The officer fired a Taser gun at him as he escaped the house along with his accomplices.

But, as they tried to flee from the town’s back streets, officers arrested them and they were charged with aggravated burglary, an offence they subsequently admitted at court.

Sentencing, Judge Gerald Clifton said the girls were terrified “out of their wits”.

Mr Jansen said the girls’ victim impact statements illustrated how “frightened they were and the impact it has had on them since”.

The trauma has worsened one victim’s medical condition.

Judge Clifton added it was significant to question whether the weapons (the swords were brought to court and shown to the judge) would have been used had the men struck at their intended target.

He said: “The proper question is to ask if you had gone to the (right) house, and been opposed, what would these weapons have been used for.

“Having seen them they would have caused really serious harm.”

He sentenced Jennings, 26, of Ravenhead Avenue, Huyton, who has 28 convictions for 43 offences and was on licence from prison at the time of the crime, to five years and eight months in jail.

He will be on licence for three years after release.

Judge Clifton told him: “Do you pose a serious risk of causing really serious harm? The answer is yes. Therefore, I’m sentencing you on the basis you are a dangerous offender.”

Michael Scholes, representing Jennings, said: “He was under pressure, under stress (and) he had been assaulted because of a debt he had accumulated on release from prison.

“He became involved a vicious cycle (and) in desperation resorted to this atrocious crime. If he had the choice to turn the clock back he would. He is truly sorry.”

Lowe, 23, of Lower Hall Street, St Helens, was sentenced to five years in prison and Taylor, 21, of Reeds Road, Huyton, for five years and four months, less the time they have already spent in custody.

Ian Morris, representing Lowe, said: “He should not be considered dangerous. He has a three-year-old daughter and a pregnant girlfriend…and is a young man who has suffered many traumatic losses.

“He is still in shock at the position he finds himself in and his uppermost concern is that he has let his young family down.”

Taylor, who has previously served more than three years in jail for possessing a handgun after becoming involved in gang culture, was “genuinely remorseful”, according to Martine Snowdon, his legal representative.

She said he accepted responsibility and understands the impact of such crimes because his own family had had a petrol bomb put through their own front door.

She said he did not want his family in court because he would be “embarrassed and ashamed to hear the brutal truth of what happened.”

A fourth man had faced the charge of aggravated burglary but the prosecution was dropped at a previous hearing.

The St Helens Star and the Liverpool Echo were the only media organisations present at court.