Archive Crime Drugs Vice Kidnapped Man Jailed For His Lies Over Ordeal
| Kidnapped Man Jailed For His Lies Over Ordeal |
|
A BURNLEY kidnap victim who was tortured and held to ransom, but who later gave false evidence in a trial, has been jailed for four years. Alec Cunningham, of Plumbe Street, Burnley, lied about the brutal ordeal in which he was taken from his home and stabbed, scalded and burned with cigarette ends. Five men went on to receive custodial sentences totalling nearly 50 years for plotting to kidnap him in June, 2003. Cunningham was eventually charged with perjury over his evidence in that trial last year. Later, at his own trial on the perjury charge, he told the jury at Preston Crown Court that he acted under duress, fearing that he himself or members of his family might suffer serious injury or even death. Cunningham (47) had been taken from his then home address in Todmorden Road, Briercliffe, as part of a gangland kidnap and driven to the Stretford area of Manchester by men in three cars. He was violently assaulted, with boiling water poured over his legs, and ended up being detained for up to 12 hours until a ransom was handed over. He later made a 999 call from a phone box in Stretford and spent some days in hospital after being found in a distressed and injured state. Cunningham made an oral statement in the kidnap proceedings that he had not been kidnapped and that he had gone willingly to Manchester to see a man called David McShea, to whom he owed a large sum of money. Cunningham also said that it was he who attacked Mr McShea and others present and that his injuries were the result of a violent fight he had with them, during which he was accidentally scalded. He had claimed that before the trial took place he had been threatened if he went ahead and gave evidence in the kidnap case. He told police that several incidents had occurred, one while he was in prison when three men reportedly tried to get into his cell. One of two men cleared during the conspiracy trial was Dominic Lattlay-Fottfoy - also known as Dominic Noonan - who featured in two TV gangster documentaries by controversial investigative reporter Donal McIntyre. Cunningham claimed that Dominic Noonan and his brother, Dessie, were behind threats against him. Footage from the programmes was played in court to the jury during the perjury case. Judge Robert Brown said perjury was a serious offence which struck at the heart of law, which relied upon trial by jury. He said: "Criminal gangs who kidnap for punishment and extortion will, and do, receive heavy sentences if convicted. "Those who try to interfere with the course of justice, whether by direct threats to witnesses or by trying to assist the defendants by giving perjured evidence, also deserve severe punishment. "Convictions for perjury are comparatively rare and it is appropriate to take a severe view of them".
10 October 2006 |