A CHURCH minister was left traumatised after he was robbed by a menacing knifeman.

Rev Mike Roberts, from Milnsbridge Baptist Church, was attacked yards from his home on Mount Street in Cowlersley.

Mr Roberts, 27, said: “He grabbed me from behind and pushed me. I stumbled and he pushed me to the floor.

“As he was leaning over me, he took my rucksack, which had a laptop, camera and Blackberry inside.

“I could see the handle of a knife in his pocket.

“He said: ‘If you don’t give me it, you’ll get it.’

“I tried to follow him. He tried to hide in a garden, then when he saw me on the phone to the police he ran off.”

CCTV from a nearby shop captured a suspect escaping with the bag.

The laptop contained irreplaceable photographs of Mr Roberts’s 2006 wedding to wife Sarah.

Mr Roberts was in church on Sunday following the incident at about 4pm last Wednesday afternoon.

But he handed over responsibility for leading the service to his regional minister.

He has spent the last few days at his mother’s house in Tamworth, Staffordshire.

“It has really shaken me up,” he said.

“People keep saying to me: ‘It shouldn’t happen to someone like you.’

“But that’s irrelevant as far as I’m concerned, it shouldn’t happen to anyone.

“I lived in South London before I moved up here and this kind of thing never happened when I was down there.

“You think where we are is a nice area.

“The cuts and bruises have gone, but this kind of thing leaves a mental scar.”

Mr Roberts intends to stay in Tamworth for the next few days, but hopes to be back at the Milnsbridge church, which has about 40 members, for Easter.

He added: “A lot of people have told me how angry they feel, but that’s not my emotion.

“It’s more a sense of grief, of loss, that things like this can happen in our society.

“I can’t say this won’t have an affect on me, I’m sure I will be jumpy for a bit, but in terms of my faith nothing is going to change.”

Anyone with information that may help police should call Huddersfield CID via 0845 6060606 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555111.