A masked robber who terrified shopkeepers during armed raids was jailed foreight years yesterday.

Stephen Steadman targeted small local shops. In one attack, two ten-year-olds looked on in horror.

Newcastle Crown Court heard how the 30-year-old first struck at Booze Busters, in Boldon Colliery, South Tyneside, on March 30 last year.

Steadman pretended that an object concealed inside a bin-liner was a sawn-off shotgun and ordered the female shopkeeper to hand over £115.

A week later, on April 6, he stormed into Bell's Store, in South Shields,after concealing his face with a surgical mask.

He threatened the assistant with a replica gun, then made off with £230, but was arrested by police on patrol outside the store.

The court heard that he had already served three years for robbery in 1993. When the raids took place, he had recently been released from a four-and-a-half year sentence for burglary and assault.

Judge Tony Lancaster ordered that he serve eight years and extended the sentence to include a further two years' supervision after his release from prison.

Steadman, of Maysfield Gardens, South Shields, pleaded guilty to two charges of robbery and admitted having an offensive weapon at the time of committing an offence.

Defence barrister Robin Patton said Steadman had tried to stay on the straight and narrow after his release from jail but accepted he had failed.

He added: "This was not a loaded firearm, no lives were at risk, although there was a perceived risk."