Kidnap gang get 28 years over naked man attack in Edinburgh

Clockwise from top - Sojoodi, Elamo. Mukueto.

Nigerian-born Emmanuel Chidubem Emmanuel struggled with his captors as they tried to forced him into the vehicle in front of shocked passersby, including mums on the school run, following his sabotage of the black BMW 5 series.

The victim had been driven around south Edinburgh for about an hour before he managed to make his dramatic escape with help from members of the public who raised the alarm.

The garage owner, who had been battered and had money stolen from a bank account, had accessed a fuse panel in the boot of the vehicle after he had managed to free himself of his bonds and brought the car to a halt.

Sanchez Facey, 23, Glen Elamo, 20, and Arnold Mukueto, 22, who were all earlier convicted of assaulting and abducting Mr Emmanuel and illegally transferring money from his account, were jailed for seven years each.

The fourth gang member, Hooman Sojoodi, 21, was jailed for seven and a half years. He had been freed on bail twice by courts in Aberdeen the month before the kidnapping.

Lady Carmichael told them that Mr Emmanuel had been “severely injured” during the terrifying offence.

During the ordeal the victim was punched and kicked, hit with a blunt weapon, his clothing was cut and he was stripped, blindfolded and trussed up at a house in the Gilmerton area of Edinburgh and the gang accessed his online bank account and took crash from it before putting him in the car.

He was driven through city streets before he managed to disable the car by pulling out fuses and fighting with them after the boot was opened at Buckstone Road in Edinburgh on February 10 this year.

Chidubem Emmanuel told the trial: “I think I was gagged with a sock. I got my face and my mouth out. I found something in the boot that I used to get the bonds on my legs off. I tried to kick my way out. They wanted a transfer of funds.”

A passing social worker, Julie Arbuckle, 47, who saw the incident began sounding her horn and called police.

She said: “They were all kicking and punching him and trying to get him into the car. At one point the naked guy, they had got him in the car but he got out the other door.”

But forensic evidence from fingerprints and DNA linked them to the BMW and the house in Hyvot Loan where the attack began.

The judge said: “You were confronted by a number of members of the public and their presence and actions by calling the police ultimately brought this incident to an end.”

Lady Carmichael said the precise background and motive for the crime did not emerge in evidence at the earlier trial but it was clear they had wanted to extract money from their victim for some reason.

All four had originally faced an allegation that they had struck their victim with bats, hammers and knives and menaced him with a gun, but that was deleted from the charge.