AN "EXPERIENCED criminal" who has spent almost half his life behind bars has been cleared of an attempted knife-point robbery.

Eamonn Anderson, of Salter Close, Oxford, was charged with one count of attempted robbery and one count of possession of an offensive weapon.

The 53-year-old was arrested following an incident at the Westgate Shop, which adjoins the Westgate Hotel, in Botley Road, on March 17.

He has spent 24 years in prison for robbery and firearms offences in the past and told the Oxford Mail in 2011 that violent offenders should get longer prison sentences.

But today a jury in Oxford Crown Court took just two hours to find the former career criminal not guilty.

During the trial he told the jury whoever carried out the robbery “didn’t have a clue” and had made mistakes only an inexperienced robber would make.