Posts Tagged ‘mecca bingo’

On 3 July last year, father of one Craig Stephenson travelled from London by motorbike to a Norwich Mecca bingo hall where he held a woman hostage at knife point in a frightening armed robbery.  He has now been jailed for four years.

At 8:15am Stephenson entered the building armed with an 8 inch knife and took a young woman hostage.  Stephenson then led the terrified woman into the main hall and came face to face with the building cleaner Lee Marrison.  Instead of laying down on the floor as he was ordered to do, Mr Marrison boldly faced up to the attacker and chased him out of the building.  Stephenson fled the scene empty handed and the young woman wasn’t hurt.

Following the attack police quickly tracked down the attacker and key DNA evidence to ensure successful prosecution.  During the trial the court heard that this had been a “well thought out robbery” as Stephenson had used the getaway vehicle, his motorbike, to drive to the bingo hall the day before to case the building and area.  This aroused suspicion for staff at Mecca after they recognised the motorbike on the day of the robbery.

While this story was very traumatic for the young woman who was taken hostage, we can be confident knowing that our world is a better place because we have courageous people like Lee Marrison within our communities.  Mr Marrison made a daring move which unquestionably saved the young woman, and resulted in no money being stolen from the bingo hall.  Now that’s what I call a hero!!