Afternoon:
14°c
A “ruthless and brutal” armed gang who kidnapped a friend of Lily Allen and held him hostage for a week were convicted today.
The 25-year-old friend and his 18-year-old colleague were handcuffed and bundled at gunpoint into a car boot as they closed up the west London sports shop where they worked.
During their ordeal the men, who cannot be named, were pistol-whipped, forced to watch torture DVDs and told they would be shot in the head if relatives did not pay a ransom, Southwark crown court heard.
But after £90,000 was handed over police swooped to rescue the pair and arrest four of the gang outside their stronghold, a council flat in Thamesmead.
Allen thanked the Met's Kidnap Unit for rescuing her friend while she was co-hosting the GQ Men of the Year award show.
She said: “Thank you to the Met for getting my friend back, we were all terrified. From what I hear, the police did a fantastic job.”
Speaking outside the court, Detective Inspector Steve Wagstaff from the Met's kidnap unit said he had been "shocked" at the level of violence used.
He said: "They were taken at gunpoint, handcuffed, dragged down the stairs and beaten. It was done with almost military precision."
Following a four-week trial, a jury found Thijseen Johns-Elliot, 28, of Forest Hill, Jason Goode, 27, of Catford, and Virgil Percival, 36, of Stoke Newington guilty of charges including blackmail, kidnap and false imprisonment.
Organiser Joseph Hadji, 27, of Queen's Park, was also on trial but admitted his guilt midway through the case.
Ashanti Kumpati, 28, who rented the south-east London flat, and his friend Paul Wigan, 29, of Catford, earlier admitted their part in the plot.
CCTV from the Ladbroke Grove shop showed six men in hoodies or hats coming in at closing time on 2 August last year, pretending to be customers.
They grabbed the 18-year-old and held a gun at his head. The gang stole bags of clothes before driving their hostages to a youth hostel where their eyelids were stuck down with painful gaffer tape.
For the final days of their ordeal they were moved to Kumpati's flat.
Matthew Farmer, prosecuting, said: “They are wholly innocent victims. The only motive was pure profit. You may think the misery inflicted on them was gratuitous.”
The gang warned the 25-year-old they would “blow his brains out” if he did not “shut up”. He tried to escape but was dragged back and pushed to the floor.
On the day of the rescue they were “stripped and scrubbed” and dressed in black bin bags ready for another journey in a car boot.
But they were unaware that police had mounted a surveillance operation after the 18-year-old's brother handed £20,000 to the gang.
Goode, Kumpati and Wigan were arrested at the scene on 9 August.
Hadji was arrested at a Tottenham address days later and Percival was caught at his home. Sentence was adjourned until 12 October.
