KNIFE wielding thugs robbed a wrongly convicted man of £20,000 compensation cash, a court heard today.Jurors at Ipswich Crown Court heard one of the men accused of the violent burglary had then twice threatened to kill one of the witnesses in the case against him.

KNIFE wielding thugs robbed a wrongly convicted man of £20,000 compensation cash, a court heard today.

Jurors at Ipswich Crown Court heard one of the men accused of the violent burglary had then twice threatened to kill one of the witnesses in the case against him.

Rodney Jones, 40, of Aldham Road, Hadleigh, denied aggravated burglary.

Lennox Wright, 39, of Neath Drive, Ipswich, denies aggravated burglary and two counts of intimidation.

Anthony Bate, prosecuting, told the court the background to the case went right back to 1990 when Darrell Weekes was sentenced to seven years for rape at Bury St Edmund's Crown Court.

Five years later the conviction was overturned and Mr Weekes was awarded just over £36,000 in compensation by the home office.

Mr Bate said the 41-year-old had roughly £20,000 of it left in a rucksack at his Burlington Road, Ipswich, home when two men burst in on January 29.

The two men bundled Mr Weekes back into his flat at knifepoint, bound him hand and foot with nylon ropes and a Play Station cable, then escaped with the cash.

Mr Bate said much of his evidence in the case would come from a drug addict prostitute whom Mr Weekes had befriended in Portman Road.

Jade Norris, 19, of Maidenhall Green, Ipswich, said Mr Weekes had paid her for sex and she remained at his house for a couple of weeks.

Mrs Norris described Mr Weekes as being very generous, she knew he had a large amount of money but she said she didn't know how much and had never seen it.

Mrs Norris said she went home on the night of January 28 because her mother Sherry Carvel was due in court the next day and expected to go to jail.

She said her mother was also a prostitute, working at Golds Massage Parlour in Woodbridge Road.

Mrs Norris said Wright was a customer there and Jones was carrying out building work.

The pair arrived at the Maidenhall Green maisonette later that evening and confronted Mrs Norris.

They demanded to know about the cash Mr Weekes kept at his home and said they intended to rob him.

Mrs Norris said she did not want to get involved in the crime but was forced into a car which was then driven to Burlington Road.

The trial continues.