A 22-year-old’s quick thinking saved her and her mother from being shot during a raid on their home by robbers pretending to be police officers. Emily Aitchison was held at gunpoint by Ashley Fulton with her mother Kerry at their Poole Harbour home in February 2023. Fulton was joined by a friend, who for legal reason cannot be named, both wearing fake police uniform and tricked their way into the home.
They pulled Emily around the house by her hair and threatened to burn her with an iron. They also told her they would shoot her 55-year-old mother in front of her if she didn’t open the safe. Bravely, the women refused with Emily wrongly entering the code twice before telling them if she did it a third time it would trigger the alarm.
The robbers panicked and fled but not before ransacking the £2.5 million house and stealing more than £200,000 of luxury watches, designer handbags, jewellery, cash and their mobile phones. Mrs Aitchison’s husband Mark is the chief executive officer of Colten Care, which owns 21 care homes in the south of England.
Fulton and his accomplice said they were doing door to door enquiries about a rape on the seafront two days before. But as Mrs Aitchinson leaned in to look at their ID one put a gloved hand over her mouth and said ‘if you shut up and behave yourself you won’t get hurt’. Mike Mason, prosecuting, told Bournemouth Crown Court Mrs Aitchison was pushed on the floor ‘quite violently’ and her hands and feet were tied.
Daughter.