A journalist was forced to drive into London at gunpoint after picking up two boys who had escaped from a borstal.

Mr D Wettern, who worked at the Daily Express, picked up the boys, aged 16 and 14, in Stevenage. The 16-year-old then held a rifle to his back.

Mr Wettern said: “He told me to drive into the country but I told them I would drive them through to south London and show them somewhere they could hide out.” He told the boys his paper might be interested in their story, and fed them, and they allowed him to drive them to the HQ in Fleet Street where police were called. A despatch rider, Dennis Butler of New North Road, Hoxton, told East London Juvenile Court he saw the younger boy had the rifle under his raincoat when he saw them in the foyer.

Mr Butler tried to grab it after he passed it to the older boy who began operating the bolt.

The boys were found guilty of possession of a rifle with intent to endanger life, and having the gun without a licence.