Ipswich men who were part of torture gang jailed for total of 22 years
Leicester Square. Photo:PA Wire - Credit: PA ARCHIVE IMAGES
Two Ipswich men who were part of torture gang who terrorised their victim with knives and a hot iron during a 36-hour ordeal have been jailed for a total of 22 years.
The gang, including Razak Akande, 21, of Holman Court, Ipswich, brought a man from London to Zico Wright’s St George’s Street home where they tortured him as part of a blackmail plot.
The pair were among five men jailed at Blackfriars Crown Court. Akande was given a 15-year term with 24-year Wright receiving seven years’ imprisonment.
They had attempted to extort money from their innocent victim’s relatives in exchange for keeping him alive.
Tyrone Kane, 21, and Kevin Gatore, 22, both of Finsbury, north London, were also given 15-year jail terms.
Jimmy Tan, of Battersea, who plotted the kidnap, was sentenced to five years in prison.
The victim’s ordeal began at around 3am on June 13 last year. He had left a nightclub in Leicester Square with friends, one of whom was Tan.
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They drove to King’s Cross, but after getting out of the car, three other thugs armed with a pistol, kitchen knife and flick knife, came at the victim and shouted at him to get back into the car.
A gun was pointed at his head and fearing for his life he did as he was told.
The others got in the car with him, while Tan stayed behind. The victim was taken to Wright’s home on the outskirts of Ipswich town centre and was repeatedly threatened and assaulted en route.
The gang made him call his uncle, demanding money to prevent him being killed. The kidnappers then carried out a savage attack burning the man with an iron and stabbing him with a knife.
Meanwhile, his uncle reported the kidnap to police at about 5.30am the same day.
Around a day-and-a-half later the Metropolitan Police’s Trafficking and Kidnap Unit (TKU) managed to trace where the victim was being held.
Working with armed officers from Suffolk Constabulary the TKU stormed the premises in St George’s Street, where they found and arrested Kane, Gatore and Akande.
They arrested Tan, 23, of West London, and Wright at a later date.
The petrified victim was taken to hospital but did not suffer life-threatening injuries.
After the gang’s sentencing Detective Sergeant Vicky Tunstall, of the TKU, said: “This group plotted and carried out a vicious and brutal kidnap with a view to making money. The victim was subjected to a terrifying ordeal, and he and his family feared for his life.
“We are pleased with the sentence, which sees this organised crime group in prison instead of out on our streets posing a threat to the public.”
Kane, Gatore and Akande, were convicted kidnapping, false imprisonment and blackmail.
Tan was convicted of kidnapping, while Wright received his sentence for false imprisonment.
Kane was also sentenced to three years’ imprisonment for dealing cocaine and heroin.
