A JUDGE yesterday sentenced a ''wicked and evil'' gang of armed

robbers, led by a former Paratrooper, to prison terms of 20 and 25

years, adding that he could find little mercy for them.

In two separate incidents, the gang of three kidnapped and abused

families threatening them with brutal reprisals to force the managers of

a bank and a supermarket to hand over a total of #96,000.

During a five-week trial at Chelmsford Crown Court, Essex, the jury

was told how former soldier John Calton, 39, and builders Sean Wain and

Robert Moore, both 23, burst into the managers homes wearing balaclavas

and brandishing a sawn-off shotgun.

Their terrified victims were handcuffed and had pillowcases put over

their heads and on one occasion two teenage boys were even threatened

with castration if their father failed to co-operate in robbing his

employer's safe.

The three were convicted on two counts of robbery at Barclays Bank in

Kelvedon, Essex in 1989 and at the Tesco's Superstore at Copdock, near

Ipswich, Suffolk in 1991. They were also all found guilty on two counts

of possessing firearms.

Calton, of no fixed address and nicknamed the German, was singled out

as the gang's leader and jailed for 25 years for robbery and 10 years,

to run concurrently, for the firearms charge.

Wain, of Burnham-on-Crouch and Moore, of Southminster, both in Essex,

each received 20 years for the two kindnap robberies and 10 years, to

run concurrently, on the firearms charges.

Yesterday, Judge Peter Greenwood said: ''It is rare, fortunately, I

find I have men in front of me who are not only wicked but also evil.

''The vile cruelty you showed when kidnapping ordinary decent people

was without mercy, and you can expect little from me,'' he told them.

On Wednesday, the jury acquitted the three of two bank robberies in

London, in January 1990, and January 1991, in which the families of

managers were again taken hostage and terrorised.

Sean Wain's father Robert, 48, of Southend, Essex was also cleared of

handling and conspiracy charges.

As the verdicts were read Calton, who saw Army service in Northern

Ireland and Germany with the 1st Parachute Regiment, remained aloof and

even read a novel as the foreman pronounced him guilty.