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Watch incredible moment brave student sends pair of knife-wielding corner shop raiders packing TWICE
Postgraduate Lushan Weerasooriya, 28, hailed by judge for his courage after drug-crazed pair attempt to hold up store
THIS is the incredible moment a student who was working at a corner shop to fund his PhD sends a pair of knife-wielding robbers packing TWICE.
Brothers Gregory, 37 and 32-year-old Matthew Booth were high on a cocktail of drugs and drink when they attempted to hold up the store.
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But CCTV footage shows the pair being forced to flee empty handed when postgraduate Lushan Weerasooriya, 28, defied previous advice from his boss to hand over money to raiders and picked up a baseball bat which was kept behind the counter.
As the brothers shouted: ''Hand over the money, motherf*****'' and then lunged at Lushan, the Sri Lankan national, who was alone, waves the bat at them and refuses to open the till.
The pair try to overpower the hard working student twice before eventually retreating when they realise he would not give up the battle.
Both were arrested when police recognised them from the CCTV footage.
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As both brothers began four years and four months jail, Lushan - who pays £8,000 a year for his Electronics course at Salford University in Greater Manchester - was back at work behind the counter after a judge commended him for his bravery.
The policeman's son said: ''The judge was very kind in his words but I'm not sure I was that brave - I just felt had to act on instinct to stay alive.
''I really need the college degree to become a man and make my life better and I need the job to help pay for my studies. if I had been seriously hurt then all that opportunity would have gone.
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''I remembered my boss telling me that if anyone ever came in trying to steal just give them the money and let them go but I was worried that they would take the money and kill me too.
''They were that aggressive, I thought if I had let them get the money then they would have probably stabbed me anyway because people who are under the influence just don't care about anything but themselves.''
''If I had been cut at all then I could have dropped the baseball bat and they would have stabbed me to death.''
The 8pm raid at Deans Food and Wines in Patricroft, Eccles occurred on April 22 when the brothers each wielding kitchen knives burst in wearing scarves over their faces and demanding cash.
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Lushan who arrived in the UK in 2014 to study and who has been working at the shop for six months said: ''I saw a massive knife in my face and a man lunging over the counter and immediately thought I was going to get stabbed.
"There was a baseball bat behind the counter and I just picked it up to defend myself with it.
''At first I thought I could hold off one knifeman, but then I realised it was baseball bat against two knifemen. I really was scared for my life and it was either them or me at that point.
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''I was just worried that if they got the money, they could still stab me. We fought and then I hit one of them, and they went for the door. Then one of them started trying to stab at me again whilst the second one started crawling along the floor towards me.
''I used the bat to smash the glass partition and it went all over them. At that point I realised I had the panic button and so I pressed it.
"I had so much adrenaline I felt like I could carry on fighting. It was only when the police showed me the footage that I realised how scary it was.''
The brothers who lived together at Brookhouse, Salford, were arrested on their home 48 hours later after police watched the footage. At Manchester Crown Court they admitted attempted robbery and possession of a bladed article.
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The court heard the pair who abused heroin and crack cocaine were in breach of a suspended jail term imposed for burglary. Both claimed they had carried out the raid after their mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer.
She died whilst they were awaiting trial and both went to the funeral in handcuffs.
Defence lawyer Robert Kearney said: "There was little or very little planning in this offence. These were two men in the haze of drink and drugs, barely recognising what they had done when they were in the police station.''
But passing sentence, the judge Mr Recorder Michael Duck QC, said: "Those who work inside these shops are particularly vulnerable.
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"This young man was working there to supply his income to pay his way through life and didn't deserve to be subjected to the terrifying violence you subject him to.
"You operated as a team and the knives were constantly out to terrify the victim. It's too his credit that he picked up a baseball bat behind the counter and defended himself and the property he was being paid to service.
"He did that by wielding the baseball bat in the direction of both of you.
"It would have been better if either or both of you backed off but you simply didn't. It's an extraordinary act of bravery by this man.
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"There came a point where you both went towards the front door but came back shouting 'give us the money you mother f**ker".
"He thought to himself it was too early for his life to end all the work he had done up until that point. Despite his brave response, he must have been utterly terrified.''
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