THE ‘organiser’ of an armed robbery in Blackburn in which a security guard was shot, cut off his girlfriend’s hair when she ended the relationship, a court heard.

Samantha Knight, 24, of Cavendish Place, Blackburn, had kept her ‘on and off’ relationship with Colin McCash, 31, of Spencer Street, Accrington, secret because of her family’s dislike of him, a jury was told.

McCash has already pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit robbery in connection with the Preston Old Road, Blackburn, raid in December 2008 and another robbery in Thornton Cleveleys on August 25 2008.

Knight – one of five defendants currently on trial at Preston Crown Court for their part in both raids – told police in interview that she had been to Blackpool on the eve of the robbery at Morrisons in Thornton for a ‘secret’ night away in a bed and breakfast.

The crown say that Knight and then-boyfriend McCash were actually there to do a ‘reconnaissance’ of the supermarket the night before a Loomis security guard was robbed of £50,000 cash.

In a transcript of Knight’s police interviews from May 2009 and again in September 2009, the jury was told Knight ‘didn’t want to go out in Blackburn where someone might see me’.

She said: “My mum didn’t like the way he was with me. The reason we split up was because he cut my hair off.

“He held my head down, grabbed it and cut it off.

“He said ‘right, you don’t want to be with me. I’ll tell you what we’re going to do’.

“Then he came in with a pair of scissors, grabbed and cut three times.”

The court heard McCash began texting and telling Knight how sorry he was before the two snuck away to Blackpool.

Knight denies two counts of conspiracy to commit robbery.