Seven charged with kidnap of Coventry man

[dutchman]

Seven men have been charged with kidnapping a Coventry man and dumping him in a secluded street.

Police launched an investigation after the 25-year-old was found with serious injuries in McDonnell Drive, Longford, at 11pm on Tuesday.

The victim remains in hospital today where his condition is described as ‘‘stable’’.

After the man was found, police went to an address a mile away in Dovedale Avenue, Longford, and arrested 11 people on suspicion of kidnap.

Four of those arrested – a 13-year-old boy, a 28-year-old man and two women, aged 25 and 44, all from Coventry – have since been released without charge.

The seven who have been charged appeared at Coventry Magistrates Court yesterday.

Ishmaeel Akbar, 22, of Kingsbury Road, Tipton; Kofi Poyser, aged 22, of Dovedale Avenue, Longford; Ralph McLeod, aged 36, of Belmont Road, Paradise; Lamar Grant, aged 24 of Wyatt House, Broad Park Lane, Henley Green; Kadeem Poyser, aged 20 of Browning Road, Stoke; and Jermaine Campbell, aged 23, of Broad Park Lane, Henley Green, have all been charged with kidnap.

The seventh man, Ricardo Grant, aged 23, of Watcombe Road, Henley Green, is charged with kidnap and possession of a firearm.

All were remanded in custody.

[dutchman]

Three men found guilty of gunpoint kidnapping in Coventry


The blood-stained van in which the victim was tortured

Three men have been found guilty of kidnapping a Coventry man at gunpoint - and cutting off his finger as part of their ransom demands.

Seven gang members had already admitted their involvement when they appeared at Leamington Justice Centre last month, but Ralph McLeod, Lewis Poyser and Yusuf Akbar all denied the charges.

Today the three men were found guilty of blackmail, unlawful imprisonment and wounding after a four-week trial.

All ten defendants have been remanded into custody and will appear back at court for sentencing on January 23.

The 26-year-old victim was bundled into the back of a van at gunpoint by three men wearing balaclavas in Milverton Road, Wood End, Coventry, on September 30 last year, as he was talking to friends.

He was beaten and kicked and taken to a lock-up garage where he was left bound and gagged with a bag over his head in a van, without food or water, throughout his ordeal.

The man’s family were contacted and a ransom of £60,000 was demanded, but when they didn’t respond quickly enough, the gang cut off the man’s little finger and left if under a brick on a garden wall for his family to find.

Speaking after the court case, Det Chf Insp Simon Wallis, of West Midlands Police, said: “The family were understandably distraught at the thought of what else could happen to their loved one and immediately paid a ransom of £20,000.

“The victim was thrown out of the back of the van later that night on McDonnell Drive, after being kept in a garage where he had been severely kicked and beaten with a metal bar throughout his 36-hour ordeal.”

The man was taken to hospital for treatment and two hours later armed police swooped on a house in Dovedale Avenue, Longford, where several men were arrested for the kidnap. The cash, all except for a few pounds, was recovered from the address.

Four of the defendants, Anthony McLeod, Kofi Poyser, Lewis Poyser and Lemar Grant will also be sentenced for their part in a brutal assault on a man outside a Coventry nightclub on June 30, which was captured on CCTV.

In the early hours of that morning, after leaving Clique nightclub in Silver Street, the group beat a 26-year-old man unconscious, stamping and kicking his head into a brick wall.

The four pleaded guilty to the assault earlier this year and sentencing was deferred so that the details of the attack could be used as bad character in the kidnap trial.

Kofi Poyser, 23, of Dovedale Avenue, Longford, Kadeem Poyser, 31, of Browning Road, Wyken, Ricardo Grant, 24, of Watcombe Road, Henley Green, and Lamar Grant, 26, and Jermaine Campbell, 24, both of Broad Park Road, Henley Green, pleaded guilty to kidnap, possession of a firearm whilst committing a schedule one offence, unlawful imprisonment, blackmail and Section 18 wounding.

Anthony McLeod, 34, of Sycamore Road, Aldermans Green, and Ismaeel Akbar, 32, of Kingsbury Road, Tipton, pleaded guilty to unlawful imprisonment, blackmail and Section 18 wounding.

Ralph McLeod, 37, and Lewis Poyser, 24, both of Belmont Road, Paradise, and Yusuf Akbar, 33, of Wynn Street, Birmingham, were found guilty of unlawful imprisonment, blackmail and Section 18 wounding.

[dutchman]

Kidnappers who chopped off Coventry kidnap victim's finger sentenced to life



Five members of a ruthless gang who cut off a kidnap victim’s finger to back up a ransom demand to his family have been handed life sentences.

And five other members of the gang who held their Coventry victim captive for 32 hours without food or water have been given prison sentences totalling almost 70 years.

The gang, who had come under surveillance soon after snatching their victim off the street at gunpoint, were arrested within minutes of dumping him in a ditch after the ransom was paid.

And gunman Ricardo Grant (pictured) later pleaded guilty to kidnapping, having a firearm with intent, false imprisonment, blackmail and grievous bodily harm with intent.

Lemar Grant, Kofi Poyser, Kadeem Poyser and Jermaine Campbell admitted the same charges; and Ismaeel Akbar and Anthony McLeod admitted blackmail, false imprisonment and GBH with intent.

Yusuf Akbar, Ralph McLeod and Lewis Poyser denied those three charges, but were found guilty following a trial – and the case was then adjourned for all 10 men to be sentenced together.

In addition Anthony McLeod, Kofi Poyser, Lewis Poyser and Lemar Grant pleaded guilty to a separate offence of causing GBH with intent following an earlier incident outside a nightclub.

At the resumed hearing at the crown court in Leamington today, Lewis Poyser, aged 24, of Dovedale Avenue, Longford, Coventry, was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Judge Sylvia de Bertodano ordered him to serve a minimum of 13-and-a-half years, minus 339 days he has already spent in custody, before he can be considered for parole.

Lemar Grant, aged 26, of Broad Park Road, Henley Green, Coventry, and Kofi Poyser, aged 23, of Dovedale Avenue, Longford, Coventry, were both given life sentences and ordered to serve a minimum of 13 years minus 480 days already served on remand.

Anthony McLeod, 34, of Preston Court, Northampton, and his brother Ralph McLeod, 37, of Belmont Road, Coventry, who are already serving jail terms for a drug conspiracy, were also given life sentences, with Anthony being ordered to serve a minimum of 13 years and Ralph nine years.

The judge had told them that, either because of their involvement in both incidents or because of previous convictions for violence, she considered them to be ‘a serious danger to the public.’

Of the others, Ricardo Grant, 24, of Watcombe Road, Henley Green, Coventry, and Campbell, 25, of Broad Park Road, Henley Green, were both jailed for 15 years.

Ismaeel Akbar, 32, of Kingsbury Road, Tipton, was jailed for 14-and-a-half years; his brother Yusuf Akbar, 33, of Wynn Street, Edgbaston, Birmingham, for 12 years; and Kadeem Poyser, 21, of Browning Court, Wyken, Coventry, for 13 years.