Waterboard ordeal of £30,000 kidnap victim’

 
Paul Cheston11 December 2013
WEST END FINAL

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A kidnap gang tortured their hostage by waterboarding him as they demanded a £30,000 ransom from his family and friends, a court heard.

The victim, 33, was blindfolded, tied up and held for two days in two houses after a gang of men planted a tracking device on his car before snatching him as he sat in the vehicle in Southall, a Southwark crown court jury was told.

He suffered the “horrendous ordeal” of being waterboarded — tortured with water poured over his face until he felt he was drowning — said prosecutor Catherine Pattison.

During his captivity, the gang demanded money and drugs from him as they moved him between two houses in High Wycombe, it is alleged. He was eventually dumped after two days, when he was found tied to a tree in 535-acre Black Park in Wexham, Buckinghamshire, after two cash drops totalling £30,000 were made, the court heard.

The victim suffered a collapsed lung, bruising and skin loss on his wrists during the kidnap in 2011, said Ms Pattison. “He had his head covered over in the first house and his legs and hands were tied and he was subjected to a horrendous ordeal — he was waterboarded.”

Gary Randles, 26, of Rickmansworth; Kwame Speede, 28, of Wembley and his cousin Daniel Speede, 30, of Southall; Masood Rafiq, 43, of High Wycombe, and Adrian Bernard, 32, of Southall, all deny conspiracy to commit kidnap, false imprisonment and blackmail.

The trial continues.

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