Kidnap gang 'animals' who beat man are jailed

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

- STAFF REPORTER

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 prison 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.