A BROTHER and sister who plotted to rob a woman at knifepoint in a York flat have been jailed.

Joseph Johnson, 28, disguised behind dark glasses and a baseball cap, burst into the victim’s apartment, pushed her against a wall and held a knife to her throat, said Judge Simon Hickey.

“It must have been a frightening, terrifying experience for her,” he said.

The victim had trusted Johnson’s sister Amy to watch her back when both were working in the sex trade in Skeldergate in September 2019.

Instead, the 30-year-old sister told her brother when the victim had finished with four clients - and therefore would have the most money – and where she would be.

The victim struggled and the brother and sister didn’t manage to get any money from her, said the judge.

In her personal statement, the victim wrote that she felt betrayed by Amy Johnson and that the robbery bid had shaken her confidence.

Amy Johnson, 30, of Roebuck Chase, Wath-on-Deane near Rotherham, was jailed for five and a half years and Joseph Johnson, of Vauxhall Close, Sheffield, for seven.

Both denied attempted robbery but were convicted by a jury at York Crown Court.

Joseph Johnson admitted growing cannabis in a Sheffield house.

Austin Newman, prosecuting, said police found 40 mature cannabis plants in its attic capable of providing cannabis street deals worth £13,860.

For Amy Johnson, Daniel Penman said about her work in the sex trade: “She is entitled to work. What she does is not illegal.

“She works to provide for herself and her family. When she stops work, her clientele will go elsewhere.”

The sister had had a painful medical condition since she was 18 that was likely to require surgery.

For Joseph Johnson, Rebecca Steven said he had been addicted to cannabis since he was 12 and had debts to the Child Maintenance Service. He had not offended for two years.