{"id":4109,"date":"2009-09-12T17:35:21","date_gmt":"2009-09-12T17:35:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tat.reddaisytrading.co.uk\/index.php\/2009\/09\/12\/torture-victim-speaks-out-about-terrifying-attack\/"},"modified":"2016-01-07T11:42:33","modified_gmt":"2016-01-07T11:42:33","slug":"torture-victim-speaks-out-about-terrifying-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/2009\/09\/12\/torture-victim-speaks-out-about-terrifying-attack\/","title":{"rendered":"Torture victim speaks out about terrifying attack"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Gang jailed after Leicester man subjected to five-hour assault<\/h3>\n
\"\"A LEICESTER man who was kidnapped and then tortured by a group of thugs for five hours has spoken out about the terrifying attack.<\/strong> <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

The 20-year-old, who does not want to be named, was left with broken ribs, broken cheek bones and severe burns following the attack last October. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Earlier this month seven of his attackers \u2013 some of whom the victim knew – were jailed for their part in the vicious assault. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Speaking for the first time about the attack, the victim admitted his association with low level drug dealing was part of the reason why he was assaulted. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Talking openly about the attack, the 20-year-old said he was eager to share his experience to help prevent other people from falling victim to this type of violent crime. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Having now left Leicester, the victim has started a new life, with a proper job and real friends. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve left my old life behind totally. I wouldn\u2019t even steal a penny sweet from a store now,\u201d he said. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re beaten that hard, so hard that you\u2019re considering whether or not you\u2019re going to die, your life will change. You\u2019ll look at yourself and you\u2019ll say, hold on a minute, why am I actually doing this? This is not worth it. Nothing is ever worth putting \u2013 not just yourself but your whole family \u2013 at risk. The risk, the shame, hurting so many different people.\u201d<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

The victim was kidnapped by the gang who believed he had taken part in an assault on three of the defendants – Paul Bradley, Anthony Diglin and Stefan Downing – the previous day. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

He was blindfolded and driven to a flat in the city where he was subjected to a five-hour ordeal which left him with two broken cheek bones, a broken nose and broken ribs. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

He also sustained serious burns all over his body after a hairdryer was pushed up against his skin. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

After letting him go, the gang tried to cover their tracks by removing the carpets and furniture to destroy possible forensic evidence. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Recovering in hospital, the victim revealed the sight of his crying mother at his bedside made his realise he wanted a better life. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cDrug money, it\u2019s quick money it\u2019s fast money but you\u2019ve got to start thinking about who you\u2019re actually affecting when you\u2019re selling these drugs,\u201d he said. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the people who are involved in the lifestyle I was involved in back then, they don\u2019t even know there\u2019s another life out there. Selling drugs, gun crime, knife crime – whatever it is – they\u2019re so sunk into that lifestyle. But now that I\u2019m in a new environment I\u2019ve opened my eyes to whole new world. It\u2019s so much easier. I don\u2019t have to look behind my shoulder anyone.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cMy parents have been the most supportive parents a guy could ever ask for. \u201cAutomatically it made me think, okay, what have I been putting my parents through? \u201cThey came to the hospital and mum just looked at me and turned around and started crying.\u00a0She couldn\u2019t even look at me any more and it just broke me to bits knowing that I\u2019d inflicted on my mum so much pain.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cI so want to put this message out there because talking about what happened to me could prevent this happening to someone else. I\u2019m willing to take that risk.\u201d<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"Paul Sean Bradley, 20, pleaded guilty to Section 18 GBH and False Imprisonment and was given an indeterminate sentence for public protection and put on life licence for what the judge described as his \u2018major part\u2019 in the assault.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Jeremy Kenneth Thorpe, 39, pleaded guilty to the same offence and received six years and eight months.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

The remaining five men pleaded to Section 47 ABH.\u00a0 Luke Hill, 30 was jailed for two years, while 25-year-old Anthony Diglin received 18 months.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Stefan Downing, 24, was given 30 weeks imprisonment suspended for two years, Callum Grant, 23, received 30 weeks suspended for two years, and Craig Michael Diglin, 24, was given a two-year supervision order.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Speaking about the investigation, Detective Sergeant Kenny Henry said: \u201cThe defendants tried very hard to outsmart us; they thought they were covering their tracks, but we were prepared to work long and hard to bring them to justice for what they did to the victim.\u201d<\/div>\n

\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gang jailed after Leicester man subjected to five-hour assault A LEICESTER man who was kidnapped and then tortured by a group of thugs for five hours has spoken out about the terrifying attack. The 20-year-old, who does not want to be named, was left with broken ribs, broken cheek bones and severe burns following […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}