A terrified woman hid in a toilet and made a whispered telephone call to the police while two masked robbers attacked her partner and searched their home near Diss.

During their ordeal Rob Williams was repeatedly punched and kicked and hit with a hammer while Holly Bloomfield feared the intruders would find her and use her to get money from her partner, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

Jailing 23-year-old Freddie Cook for ten-and-a-half years, Judge John Devaux said Mr Williams was subjected to a “prolonged and horrifying ordeal”.

He said he was satisfied Cook was one of two men who entered the house and that he had not stayed outside as a lookout.

Cook, of Ashcroft Road, Ipswich, admitted robbery on January 15 and asked for 20 offences to be considered.

The court heard these included 11 house burglaries involving property worth more than £60,000.

Richard Potts, prosecuting, told the court Mr Williams and Miss Bloomfield, who had only recently moved into their “forever home” at Hepworth, near Diss, had just got back from work at about 6pm when Cook and another man pounced on Mr Williams as he was emptying a bin.

They knocked him to the ground and one of them put his foot on Mr Williams’ head before frogmarching him into the house.

The men threatened to kidnap and kill Mr Williams if he didn’t tell them where he kept his money and hit him in the face, head, ribs and back leaving him with cuts, bruises and a fractured wrist.

“Miss Bloomfield hid in a toilet and heard all this. She was in a state of terror and was whispering down the telephone to the emergency call handler,” said Mr Potts.

The intruders left with £700 cash, three watches, a purse and its contents and keys to a BMW X5.

The court heard that Cook’s DNA was found in saliva located next to a patio outside the couple’s home.

In victim impact statements read to the court the couple described the effect of the robbery as “devastating” and Miss Bloomfield said she had been scared the intruders would hear her while she was on the phone to the police.

Steven Dyble, for Cook, said his client claimed he was a look out and had not been one of the two men who went into the house.