Five members of a kidnapping gang have been jailed for a total of more than 44 years after forcing two men into a van, beating them with bats, and threatening to cut off their fingers and ears. The incident occurred on July 1 last year in Newcastle upon Tyne.
Mason Schubeler, 20, Harri Pearce, 22, Reece Speirs, 23, Ricky Fidler, 21, and Laura Watson, 46, were sentenced at Newcastle Crown Court on Thursday. The gang bound the victims with cable ties and forced them into a van. One victim managed to escape by jumping out of the moving vehicle, sustaining serious head injuries that left him in a coma for about a week.
The second victim endured a three-hour ordeal, during which he was beaten, threatened with scissors and knives, and told to contact family in Vietnam for a ransom. The court heard that the gang used a van to drive the victims around North Shields before the first victim jumped out. The second victim was later driven to Blyth and released.
Schubeler was jailed for 11 years and nine months for kidnap and conspiracy to supply cocaine. Pearce received 12 years and eight months for kidnap, assault, causing serious injury by dangerous driving, and aggravated burglary. Speirs was sentenced to seven years and four months for kidnap and assault. Fidler got ten years for kidnap and dangerous driving. Watson was jailed for 25 months for kidnap.
Prosecutor Gavin Doig said the gang burst into a home on Chatton Street carrying knives and bats, smashed the victims' glasses, cut one victim's hair, and bound them before forcing them into a van. The van was later burnt out, but cable ties and hair clippings were found at the address.
