Child’s kidnap terror as father is tortured for ransom

AN 11-year-old boy was kidnapped by a gang who tortured his father before demanding a ransom, it emerged last night.

The child was found in the boot of a car following a terrifying ordeal, police said.

The boy and his father were woken by the kidnappers at 12.30am in their home in Greenisland, Co Antrim.

They were hooded and bound, and the child was bundled into the boot of a car and driven away.

A Police Service of Northern Ireland spokeswoman said: “His father was then put in the back of another car and driven to a house, where he was burnt with cigarettes and assaulted.

“Demands were made for money to ensure his son’s safety.”

The father was released at around 5.30am at Trooper’s Lane, Carrickfergus, police said and ordered to bring the undisclosed ransom sum to Ballyduff Brae in nearby Newtownabbey four hours later. At the meeting point a man on a red and white trial-type motorbike took the money and handed him the key to his car.

He was told to go to Knockagh Monument, a war memorial overlooking Newtownabbey, where his frightened son was found in the car boot.

Inspector Keith Jackson said: “These are despicable people what they have actually put this family through. While physically the child is unharmed the ordeal he would have suffered is beneath words.”