HONEYTRAP GANG BRANDED 'ANIMALS' AS THEY'RE JAILED

FOUR people who kidnapped and battered a so-called friend in a honeytrap plot were described as 'animals' as they were jailed.

- CARL JACKSON

Daniel Aston, 33, his then-girlfriend Shannon Wolleter, 30, Steven Baker, 61, and his son Matthew Baker, 29, targeted charity worker Anthony Cooper over a £150 debt.

They also disapproved of his relationship with another woman.

The group used Wolleter as bait to set Mr Cooper up before dragging him from the street and subjecting him to a brutal attack which lasted longer than four hours.

At Birmingham Crown Court, all four were sentenced to immediate imprisonment by Judge Dean Kershaw. He told them: "This was a cowardly, planned and vile attack with you all attacking as animals on a vulnerable man."

Aston, of no fixed address, was sentenced to five years and eight months having admitted kidnap, robbery and unlawful wounding.

Wolleter, of Orchard Way in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, received two years and ten months after pleading guilty to kidnap and unlawful wounding.

Steven Baker, of Runcorn Road, Balsall Heath, and Matthew Baker, of Tynedale Road, Tyseley, were both jailed for three years and nine months for confessing to the same two offences.

A fifth man, David Bambrough, 41, of Anderton Park Road, Moseley, had let the group attack Mr Cooper in his previous flat in Small Heath and joined in to a limited extent.

He pleaded guilty to assault and was sentenced to six months suspended, including 35 days of rehabilitation activity and 100 hours of unpaid work.

Mr Cooper knew the defendants through working for a homeless charity and considered them friends.

But things went sour when he resumed a relationship with a woman named Bethany Love.

Lachlan Stewart, prosecuting, said: "Steven Baker saw her like a daughter. There was also a suggestion Matthew Baker may have been in a relationship with her in the past.