Kidnapper jailed for five-and-a-half years

A convicted kidnapper who set up an "ambush" for two men wrongly suspected of burgling his house and stealing his precious laptop computer has been jailed for five and a half years.

James Sidebotham lured one of the victims, Malcolm Jones, to the house in Great Wyrley where a masked "heavy" armed with a machete launched an attack on him.

Stafford Crown Court heard that Mr Jones was then bundled into the back of a van and driven round the corner to his girlfriend's house in search of her brother, Troy Reid.

The kidnappers tried to coerce Mr Reid into the van but he backed away. Mr Jones escaped by jumping out of the back of the van as the kidnappers made off in it.

Sidebotham, aged 28, of Lea Lane, Great Wyrley, denied kidnapping Mr Jones and attempting to kidnap Mr Reid on June 13 last year, but was found guilty by jurors following a trial in April.

He admitted driving the van while disqualified and was also banned from driving for five years.

The motive for the kidnapping was the theft of the defendant's laptop computer which contained years of musical work.

But Judge Simon Tonking said: "I recognise you felt you had been wronged, because you had been burgled, but it can't excuse what you did, for you were taking the law into your own hands."

Sidebotham has refused throughout to name his accomplice, but police inquiries are continuing. The jury heard in April that Sidebotham set up the ambush and recruited the "heavy" to extract information about the burglary.

Giving evidence, Mr Jones said he was "terrified" when the masked man suddenly appeared from upstairs. He said he was forced to sit in a chair and was beaten with the back of the blade of the machete, even though he told them he had nothing to do with the burglary.

Mr Eugene Hickey, defending, said: "Not only had my client's house been burgled, something, to him, particularly precious had been stolen – a laptop computer with 15 years of work, music, on it.

"He had been hoping to go to his father's recording studio in Spain to do some recording."