Teenager jailed over drug debt torture

A teenage woman who helped torture a chef after he was kidnapped over a £4,000 debt was jailed for five years today.

Venrika Kelly, 19, played a "willing part" in the attack in which Dane Williams was struck with a car's cam belt so hard that its imprints were left marked on his body, Southwark Crown Court in London was told.

She guarded him overnight as he was beaten and threatened with a blow torch while being held for some 17 hours in a garage in the east end of London on October 3 last year.

Kelly also poured hot and cold water over his body while he was beaten to intensify his pain, the court was told.

Mr Williams was then forced to make a desperate call to his family for help repaying a £4,000 drugs debt.

Sentencing Kelly today, Judge Deborah Taylor said: "This was a planned abduction and a cruel and sustained group attack carried out for revenge and debt collection, as you saw it."

Kelly showed no remorse for her actions, the judge said.

Mr Williams was a chef at the Too Sweet and Spicy restaurant in Stratford, east London, when two men approached him, the court was told.

Ken Millett, for the prosecution, said the men, who claimed to be from Milton Keynes but were actually from Liverpool, were looking for a chef who used to work in the restaurant but, when told he had left, asked Mr Williams if he wanted to buy any drugs.

He told them he was not interested but would "ask around", eventually arranging for Kelly's co-defendants, brothers Samuel and Mathew Walters, to buy 2kg of cannabis, with a street value of £4,000, on September 30 last year.

But the package was not what it should have been, with real cannabis on top but "rubbish" inside, Mr Millett said.

"Samuel Walters and the rest were, to use the impression, ripped off," he said.

Unable to get in touch with the dealers, the men went after Mr Williams, telling him they held him responsible.

They kidnapped and tortured him, holding him in the garage in Tilbury Road, Stratford, overnight on October 3 and into the afternoon of the following day until "a promise was made by him and his sister to pay out the monies owed to them".

"Ring leader and organiser" Samuel Walters, 36, was jailed for eight years today.

He held Mr Williams "to account in the most heartless way", the judge said.

"You showed him no mercy and you have showed no remorse."

His brother Mathew, 38, was jailed for six years after the judge was told he was not involved in the violence in any way.

The victim repeatedly told the court Mathew Walters saved his life by stopping others from hurting him.

Ryan Freeman, 25, who was a "willing and enthusiastic participant" in all of the offences, was jailed for seven years.

Freeman used a blow torch and paint stripped near Mr Williams' body.

The judge told the group: "You were all found guilty after trial of the abduction, imprisonment, injury and blackmail of Dane Williams."

Speaking after the verdicts were returned last month, Detective Inspector Tom Whorwood, of the Metropolitan Police Serious and Organised Crime Command, said: "This was a chilling, calculated and prolonged attack.

"The victim was left to fear for his life and that anguish extended to his sister when the gang decided to demand the money from her.

"Any people willing to subject another human being to the pain, fear and degradation inflicted on Mr Williams, over a moderate amount of money, are clearly a danger to society and deserve to face a lengthy jail term."

Kelly, of Southgate, north London, was found guilty of blackmail, false imprisonment and assault occasioning actual bodily harm following a trial last month.

Samuel Walters, of Firefly Gardens, East Ham, and his brother Mathew, of Greenhill Grove, Manor Park, were both convicted of kidnap, false imprisonment and blackmail.

Samuel Walters was also found guilty of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Freeman, of Bulwer Road, Leytonstone, was also found guilty of blackmail, kidnap, false imprisonment and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.