Shoe shop raid denied by thug; DNA was found at the scene.

Byline: ROB KENNEDY

A CONVICTED thug has denied being the masked gunman who held up a Tyneside shoe shop.

Jeffrey Wood is the man prosecutors say went into Wynsors World of Shoes, in Gateshead, brandishing a sawn-off shotgun and demanding money.His DNA was found on a balaclava used in the raid but Wood told jurors he was not the gunman.

It is claimed Wood is guilty of conspiracy to rob along with co-accused Graeme Arnot and Richard Blair.

Wood, 31, told jurors at Newcastle Crown Court: "I was not involved in the robbery. "I was not the man wearing the balaclava, I had absolutely nothing to do with this robbery. I never went to the shoe shop, absolutely not.

"At the time I was at my girlfriend's friends house."

A raider was fought off by hero shop assistant Bhar Gav Shukla when he burst into the shop, on The Sands Industrial Estate, Gateshead, last August. After his DNA was found on a balaclava, which also had Mr Shukla's blood on it, Wood was arrested.

But he told the court he had earlier borrowed the mask to hide his face while illegally riding a motorbike, and that he had returned the balaclava to another man sometime before the robbery. He also said his fingerprint had got on a car found near the scene and containing a sawn-off shotgun and the balaclava because he had done some repairs to its bodywork.

But Tim Parkin, prosecuting said: "The reason why only your DNA is on the balaclava is because you were wearing it in the robbery. You head-butted Mr Shukla and you left your saliva all over the mouth hole, perhaps from shouting 'give us the money'.

"Your DNA is on that mask for the very good reason that you committed that robbery."

Wood replied: "No I didn't." Wood then went on to blame another man, Christopher Dixon, for the raid.

Jurors have been told Wood, of no fixed address, had been jailed for 10 years in 1994 for causing grievous bodily harm with intent by running over a pedestrian in a stolen car.

He committed his first robbery as a 12-year-old when he stole 52p and has since gone on to commit offences including affray, wounding and assault, including one on his own father.

Wood, Arnot, 51, of Bedeburn Road, Newbiggin Hall, Newcastle, and Blair, 32, of Bittern Close, Dunston, Gateshead, had all initially been charged with conspiracy to rob and possession of a firearm with intent. However, the firearms charges against Arnot and Blair have now been dropped.

The trial continues.