A BARNEHURST man has been found guilty of aggravated burglary.

The verdict at Croydon Crown Court was greeted with a barrage of abuse directed towards the judge and jury from onlookers in the public gallery.

Judge Stephen Waller took the step of telling jurors to inform court staff if they felt threatened. The trial had already been stopped once when jurors complained of feeling uneasy when the defendants' friends had walked past them.

Tyrone Harding, aged 34, of Cumbrian Avenue, was convicted along with two others for a raid on the Gamecock, in Vale Road, Worcester Park.

The gang was caught by chance after the burglary on February 1, last year.

Eight hours after the licensees of the pub had been tied up and threatened with knives, Bexleyheath police swooped on a flat in Barnehurst on a drug raid. Officers found the burglars, as well as enough DNA evidence to convict them.

Harding, along with Paul Neilson, aged 34, of Saxonbury Close, Mitcham, were found guilty of aggravated burglary. The third member of the gang, George Chappell, aged 34, of Gwyda Road, Shortlands, had earlier pleaded guilty.

Andy Bowns, the landlord of the Gamecock, along with his partner, Jo Ellis, had earlier told the court their story.

He said he locked up the pub and was upstairs playing a computer game when a man burst into the room and grabbed him round the neck. The couple were tied up and thrown on the bed.

The burglars demanded to know where the money was kept. They eventually left through an upstairs window with about £1,500.

Then next morning Bexleyheath police raided the home of Harding's girlfriend in Cumbrian Avenue looking for drugs. Officers burst in and found the trio but it was not until they had returned to the station that they were informed about the burglary in Worcester Park.

They returned to arrest the men and found the money as well as three masks which provided enough DNA proof to convict them.

Chappell pleaded guilty to the charge saying he had broken into the pub to fund his drug habit.

Neilson said he had not been one of the gang and claimed his saliva was on the mask because he had tried it on for fun.

Harding did not give any evidence. The three men will be sentenced on Friday.