TWO men have been jailed for a knifepoint robbery in Salisbury Cathedral Close.

The robbery happened at about 10.30pm on July 30 last year, when Jack Alexander Dancy, 19, and Ashley John Peters, 18, approached two men in the Cathedral Close.

Dancy threatened the men with a knife and demanded they handed over their mobile phones and leave the area.

The victims, aged 22 and 36, gave Dancy and Peters their phones before dashing to the High Street where they asked a couple to call the police.

When Dancy and Peters were arrested and questioned, they both initially admitted threatening the men with a knife but Peters later changed his account and pleaded guilty to handling stolen goods.

His girlfriend at the time told police Peters had been boasting to friends about the attack after seeing a police appeal on the Journal’s website. The court heard Peters, of Coltsfoot Close, Amesbury, threatened her and tried to persuade her to withdraw her statement.

Peters pleaded guilty to witness intimidation and he has been in custody since October.

Tamsin Ryder, defending Dancy, said he has mental health problems which he has suffered since a young age due to a traumatic childhood, and he was not on medication at the time of the offence.

Dancy, of Barnard Street, Salisbury, told police he was upset at the time of the attack.

Judge Andrew Barnett said at Salisbury Crown Court on Tuesday: “What you have both got to understand, particularly you Mr Dancy, is that people who are attacked in public – albeit in the grounds of the Cathedral – at knifepoint, deserve to be protected. If you had been the victim of such an assault you would have been terrified as indeed both those young men were.

“I would be failing in my duty if I didn’t give you immediate custodial sentences,” he added.

Dancy was jailed for two years for two counts of robbery and possession of a knife, and Peters was given a one-year sentence for handling stolen goods and witness intimidation.