Luke Hazell and Miles Blakeney, both aged 37, deny kidnap, false imprisonment, blackmail and inflicting grievous bodily harm
Eanwulf Court in Edgbaston(Image: Google Street / Google Earth)
Kidnappers burnt a man’s feet as they held him hostage in a Birmingham flat and demanded large sums of money from his family, a court heard.
Around an hour after the capture of the Asian male, who we have chosen not to name, his sister received a call from him claiming his abductors wanted ‘three mill’, prosecutors said.
The plot failed and he was freed after five days, when a female motorist discovered him in the street naked, injured and pleading for help, a jury at Birmingham Crown Court was told.
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Luke Hazell, 37, from Dovedale Road, Perry Common, is accused of being the ‘brains’ behind the plan, which allegedly involved recruiting his cousin Miles Blakeney, also 37, of Ashley Close, Edgbaston.
Both men stand trial denying charges of conspiracy to kidnap, false imprisonment, blackmail, causing grievous bodily harm with intent and an alternative of unlawful wounding.
Opening the case on Wednesday, November 12, prosecutor Jonathan Barker said: “The prosecution case is the two defendants in your charge were involved in committing a series of offences which saw a man dragged off the street in Birmingham against his will, driven to and then falsel;y imprisoned in a flat in Edgbaston where violence was used against him.
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“And the purpose we say, of all of that was to extort money from him and his family members.”
He told the court that at around 10pm on January 26, 2023 a female motorist came across a naked man on Perrott Road in Winson Green, as he unsuccessfully tried to flag down another car.
Mr Barker said: “She saw and appreciated the man was badly injured. He spoke to her and said words to the effect of ‘please help me, I’ve been kidnapped’.
“That man told her and her husband his feet had been burned.
“He explained he had been taken from outside his home, they had demanded money from his family and explained the men had let him go because they didn’t get the money.”
Perrott Street, Winson Green(Image: Google images)
When police arrived the man told them the kidnappers had put boiling water over his legs and feet, which were later found to have 4th, 3rd and 2nd degree burns, the court was told.
Mr Barker said the kidnap took place five days earlier on January 21 that year.
He said shortly after 7.50pm a group of men chased the target on Angelsey Street, Lozells, and bundled him into a Land Rover.
CCTV was played to the court which captured the incident as well as the Land Rover travelling around three miles to a flat at Eanwulf Court on Wheeleys Road, Edgbaston.
It was there where the man was effectively held and tortured, police believe.
Mr Barker said Blakeney was one of four figures seen moving around the building at the time of the initial arrival. He told the court the victim’s sister started receiving information that her brother had been kidnapped, prompting her to call the police.
Shortly after 9pm that night, while in the presence of officers, she received a ‘silent call’ from her brother’s phone followed by multiple calls displaying as ‘no caller ID’, the court heard.
In one of them her brother said: ‘I’ve been kidnapped’, while in another he said: ‘They want money, they want 2 mill, no they want 3 mill’.
She was taken to Nechells police station and continued to receive calls from the kidnappers throughout the night.
Mr Barker told the jury that another resident at Eanwulf Court heard what sounded like furniture moving in the flat above between 9pm and 11pm that night.
He said she was then awoken between 3am and 4am to the sound of loud banging, crying and shouting as well as someone saying ‘don’t do it’.
The prosecutor said shortly after 4am a BMW 4×4 owned by Hazell was seen arriving at the flat block. Hazell was arrested from his address in Perry Common on January 27, the day after the man was set free.
Mr Barker said DNA evidence linked Hazell and the kidnap victim to a pair of black gloves recovered from his BMW. He told the court a ‘significant’ WhatsApp conversation was found on Hazell’s phone between himself and his cousin Blakeney, also known as ‘Sosa’.
“This conversation shows Hazell recruited his cousin Blakeney into the conspiracy to kidnap,” Mr Barker added.
It was alleged as early as January 4 that year, more than two weeks before the kidnap, Hazell sent a voice note to Blakeney saying he had a ‘nice thing’ for him, that he should be on ‘standby’ and that he had already recruited four others.
Mr Barker said Blakeney had permission to use someone’s flat at Eanwulf Court and ‘knowingly facilitated’ the imprisonment of the kidnap victim.
He said: “We also suggest Blakeney was financially motivated to involve himself in this scheme devised by Hazell.”
The prosecutor said the messages indicated Hazell had made a number of unsuccessful attempts at kidnapping the targeted man that month, prompting Blakeney to express his frustration at him.
After his arrest Hazell accounted for his whereabouts from January 21, stating he did not know the flat at Eanwulf Court or the kidnap victim.
Blakeney was arrested from his home in Edgbaston on February 13 that year.
He accepted having regularly attended the flat at Eanwulf Court in the past because it was his friend’s home.
But he said he had been at his mother’s home celebrating his birthday on the day of the kidnap. He also denied knowing Hazell, despite them being cousins, and being the man identified as ‘Sosa’ in the WhatsApp conversation.
Concluding the trial opening Mr Barker said: “The real issue in the case is not whether these things happened. It’s who was involved and specifically whether these two defendants were involved and to what extent.”
He added: “Mr Hazell appears to be the genesis, the brains behind the idea to kidnap. He needed to recruit others, those others included Mr Blakeney.”
The trial continues.