Terrified victim held hostage and burnt with iron while thugs tried to blackmail his uncle

A vicious kidnap gang who tortured their victim with knives and a hot iron during a terrifying 36 -hour ordeal have been jailed for a total of 60 years.

Tyrone Kane, 21, of St John Street and Kevin Gatore, 22, of Wynyatt Street, both Finsbury, were part of a five-man team who brutalised an innocent man as they tried to blackmail his relatives to keep him alive.

At about 3am on June 13 last year, the victim left a nightclub in Leicester Square with friends. One of them, Jimmy Tan, had plotted his kidnap.

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.

With a gun pointed to his head, and fearing for his life, he got back into the car. They got in with him – Tan stayed behind – and drove the victim to the home of Zico Wright, in Ipswich, repeatedly threatening and assaulting him en route.

The gang then made him call his uncle and plead for money to stop him being killed, before carrying out a savage attack on him, including burning him with an iron and stabbing him with a knife.

The uncle reported the kidnap to police at about 5.30am and the Trafficking and Kidnap Unit (TKU) managed to trace him in around a day-and-a-half.

Armed police stormed the address, where they found and arrested Kane, Gatore and another man Razak Akande.

They arrested Tan and Wright on a later date.

The petrified victim was taken to hospital but had not suffered life-threatening injuries.

Det Sgt 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.

“When dealing with kidnaps, our primary concern is the preservation of the victim’s life, and we act fast to ensure that.

“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, of Holman Court, Ipswich, were each sentenced to 15 years for kidnapping, false imprisonment and blackmail.

Tan, 23, of the Pattmore Estate, Battersea, was given five years for kidnapping, while Wright, 24, of St George’s Street, Ipswich, was given seven years for false imprisonment.

Kane was also sentenced to three years imprisonment for dealing cocaine and heroin after an Islington Police operation, codenamed Capone, revealed he was managing a drug phone line.