Balsall Common woman attacked and robbed in 10-hour ordeal

West Midlands Police caught Christopher Bochno, 30 after finding his DNA on a drinks bottle he had tossed into a hedgerow at the time.

Bochno was one of three masked men who burst into the country house in Meer End Road in August before strapping the 65-year-old to a radiator with cable ties.

The trio – who struck at 11.30pm – dragged the woman from her bed before threatening to burn her feet with an iron and shoot her dogs unless demands for horses worth £500,000 were met.

They eventually sped away in the woman’s Range Rover after being told the horses were stabled elsewhere but still pocketed cash, jewellery and phones worth £150,000.

A neighbouring farmer later found gates leading to the house open, and a Lucozade Orange bottle in a hedgerow.

The bottle had been in the Range Rover when it was stolen and contained saliva DNA pinning Bochno to the scene.

Bochno eventually admitted robbery and possessing an imitation firearm.

On January 12, he was sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court and jailed for 12 years.

The court heard how the offender was released from prison on licence just weeks before the farmhouse raid.

Detective constable Dave Bailey from Solihull Police, said: “This was a nasty robbery in which a grotesque level of violence was used.

“The woman was dragged out of bed, shoved to the floor and repeatedly threatened during an ordeal lasting 90 minutes.

“She was found by a cleaner tied to the radiator at 9am the following morning and doctors later discovered they’d broken two vertebrae in her back; she has not returned to the property since the attack and plans to sell up.

“I hope the victim can take comfort that he’s been jailed for a long time.”

Bochno was arrested on 26 September at an address in Attoxhall Road, Coventry, following a police raid.

When officers searched a Peugeot parked outside the bedsit – rented by a friend of Bochno’s – they found a pair of Prada prescription glasses that had been taken from the Range Rover.

The vehicle was recovered days later in a field a mile away.

Officers are still trying to trace the other men involved, and anyone with information should contact West Midlands Police on 101.