Jennifer Baker, a 35-year-old British mother of three who was found guilty of lending her home to be used as a torture chamber by a drug gang during a kidnapping, was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
The woman endorsed the kidnapping of the 30-year-old victim, who was held against her will in her home and for which £10,000 (about $13,000) was requested as a ransom.
According to the British authorities, during the duration of the kidnapping, eight men tortured the victim, forcing him to undress, beating him on his genitals, and throwing boiling water on his torso and genitals.
He was also tied hand and foot to a chair with a sweater wrapped around his neck.
During their ordeal, the kidnappers threatened to inject heroin into the victim in an attempt to “turn him into a junkie” before being forcibly fed tablets he believed were rat poison. He was also sexually assaulted before being locked in a closet.
Incredibly, the victim managed to escape the next morning by biting his restraints and sneaking away from a sleeping guard who was armed with a hammer.
The man fled the property to ask for help and was then treated in the hospital for burns.
According to the police investigation, the attack occurred in Blackley, Manchester, England, at the home of Baker, who had lent his home to the kidnappers in exchange for drugs.
While torturing the victim, she was heard asking the gang if they had any narcotics to give him, authorities said.
During her trial before the Crown Court in Manchester, the woman admitted to helping the offenders, which is why she was sent to prison for 18 months.
The ordeal began at 7:30 in the afternoon of November 12, 2019, after two men approached the victim in front of his home in Blackley, put him in a nearby car and drove him against his will to Baker's property.
Alaric Bassano, the prosecutor in the case, told the court: “In this house, he was imprisoned and assaulted for several hours. Demands were made that, unless he handed over a six-figure amount of cash, he would be seriously injured if not killed.”
The prosecutor claimed that his client was assaulted in the kitchen and living room, punched in the face, kicked, stomped, beaten with a chair, and that his head was smashed into a wall.
“He was tied to a chair in the kitchen, his hands were tied with the cord of a hair clipper, his feet were tied with a rope and a sweater wrapped around his neck while his face was covered with a sheet,” he said.
“The violence continued when he was tied up and taken to the living room. They ordered him not to look at anyone, but although (the victim) repeated that he had no money to give them, he received more beatings,” he added.
Then they threatened more violence and told him that they would inject him with heroin to make him addicted to narcotics while showing him a syringe.
The court heard that the victim was later subjected to sexual assault and boiling water was poured on her genitals and torso.
The prosecutor said that the victim had a sock stuck in his mouth, which made him afraid that he would suffocate, at which point the gang cut the tape before forcing him to give him tablets that he was told were rat poison but were actually antidepressants.
Then they locked him in a closet upstairs until the next morning.
“The victim described how Baker asked criminals for drugs during his incarceration. His impression, and the overwhelming inference, is that the criminals were criminally more sophisticated than Baker and had seized the use of his home for the purpose of abducting him, thus ensuring that the offending house was not a house directly related to them,” explained the prosecutor.
Baker, who has since moved to Bolton, was initially charged with blackmail, kidnapping, false imprisonment and causing serious bodily harm with intention, but her pleas of innocence on those charges were accepted.
Five men will be sentenced in subsequent hearings for the ordeal, charged with crimes that include false imprisonment, blackmail and kidnapping.
“This group of men used their home to imprison the victim, torture her and subject her to degrading and violent treatment. It is right to note that you were to some extent a victim as much as he was,” said sentencing judge Elizabeth Nicholls in her verdict.
“The people who came to your address certainly used you because they knew you wouldn't resist when they came to your door. It's not like you invited them to your house, but you just had little choice in the matter,” he added.
For Nicholls, the defendant did not participate in the violence, but she was present in it and although her innocence was accepted in several of the crimes for which she faced trial, an exemplary sanction was against her.
“I hope that when you are released you are drug-free and that this time in custody will give you the support you need to change your life,” the judge concluded.
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