Some of the cruel and terrifying torture methods sound like something out of a film. But they were all too real for the victims, who received horrifying injuries and went through harrowing ordeals.
In some cases victims were bound and gagged and had a hood pulled over their head, as they received brutal punishment beatings. Others had boiling water poured over them, were ordered to swallow rat poison and were even held at gunpoint.
They are among Greater Manchester's most disturbing offences - kidnap, false imprisonment and torture. And there have been a series of them lately - here, we look at the details.
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A terrifying trip on the M60
A gang of thugs tortured a man over a seven hour period after the victim had tried to sell a Rolex watch online. Remi Burgess, 25, had agreed a price of £4,000 for the watch. He agreed to collect it from a garage where the victim worked in Oldham.
He arrived in a Volkswagen T-Roc being driven by Louis Winstanley, 20, with Dominic McGrath, 29, also in the car. As the victim got in the car to complete the handover, McGrath headbutted him in the face and the car sped off.
Burgess stabbed him in the hand and McGrath knifed him in the leg. He was repeatedly punched as the car headed for the M60, with the men pushing his head into a foot well so he couldn't see where they were going.
The car pulled up outside a house in Timperley. His eyes were taped shut and his hands were taped behind his back with a hood being pulled over his head as they walked him into the house.
As the attacks continued, he had a hot iron pressed onto his stomach. He also had his jaw broken in two places.
One of the gang rang the victim's brother and demanded £100,000, threatening to kill him if they did not receive the money. After the seven hour ordeal, a ransom of £20,000 was negotiated and they arranged to meet. But police had been listening in to the call and Winstanley and McGrath were arrested nearby, Burgess was caught later.
Winstanley was sentenced to 12 years, McGrath was jailed for nine and Burgess was locked up for eight years. All three men pleaded guilty to false imprisonment and wounding with intent.
Snatched off the street
A man was kidnapped on the street before being imprisoned and tortured for 12 hours. He was bundled into a car then brought to the house of a drug addict mum, where he was subjected to a horrifying ordeal.
The man was bound and gagged, had boiling water poured over his genitals and was forced to swallow tablets, which he was told contained rat poison.
He was warned that he'd be 'gravely injured, if not killed' if he didn't hand over a large amount of cash. The victim was eventually able to escape.
Earlier that day he had been outside his home in Blackley when he was overpowered by four men and bundled into a car. He was then taken to Jennifer Baker's house, where he was dragged around different rooms in the house, punched and hit with a chair.
A sock was forced into his mouth, and fixed in place with Sellotape. Boiling water was poured on his body, including his genitals, and he was told he was going to be injected with heroin, and that a roll of cling film was going to be forced into his bottom.
He was forced to swallow tablets which he was told contained rat poison, but tests later showed they were actually an antidepressant.
Baker, 35, of Haverfield Road, Blackley, who was present in the house during horrifying attack, was arrested and told police the gang had come to her home 'unannounced'. She was jailed for 18 months for assisting an offender. Members of the gang are due to be sentenced at a later date.
12 hours of torment and an innocent ex
A man was kidnapped and subjected to 12 hours of torture before being blackmailed out of cash. He had met his ex-partner Sarah Davies, 33, at a house in Oldham, where Davies' friend Steven Wynnyk was also present.
Wynnyk, 41, started attacking him with a metal pole, before subjecting him to hours of mental and physical abuse. Boiling water was thrown on the man's head, he was threatened, and he was told he'd be buried.
A bag was put over the man's head, and he was bundled into a car and driven around Oldham as the pair demanded money. After driving to the victim's mother's address, and taking hundreds of pounds in cash and via bank transfer, he was released and Davies and Wynnyk fled.
Davies admitted kidnap and blackmail, while Wynnyk was found guilty of eight counts including kidnap, blackmail, and assault. Wynnyk was jailed for nine years, and Davies was sentenced to six years and four months.
"Wynnyk and Davies should be utterly ashamed of their remorseless and almost sadistic actions and it is right that they spend such a lengthy spell behind bars to reflect on the misery they have inflicted on an innocent man," Detective Sergeant Keri Alldritt, of GMP Oldham said after the case.
A terrifying toolkit
Two men were brutally tortured after drugs grown at a cannabis farm in Wigan vanished. The victims were held at gunpoint and attacked with a pick axe and a claw hammer.
They were also threatened with acid and a power drill, and told their loved ones would be shot. Shawn O'Malley, 33, David Scurfield, 33, and Billy McColl, 20, were each jailed after admitting false imprisonment and grievous bodily harm with intent.
It followed the discovery that cannabis the men had helped to cultivate at a farm in Ashton-in-Makerfield, Wigan, had been stolen. The drugs had been stored at a secluded site in St Helens.
"Shawn O'Malley pointed the gun first to the head of [the victims] and he told them that if they did not tell him where the drugs were he would shoot them," prosecutor Jonathan Duffy said. "The men were terrified for their lives, however, they told Shawn O'Malley that they did not know anything about the missing cannabis."
The two men were taped up and attacked with a variety of weapons, including a sledgehammer, claw hammer, metal wrench and pick axe. The horrific incident lasted hours, and they only escaped when the defendants left the site.
O'Malley was jailed for 18 years. Scurfield was locked up to nine years and McColl was sentenced to 10 years detention.
Pistol-whipped for £250k he didn't have
A businessman who his kidnappers believed was 'cash rich' was tortured and badly beaten before being dumped on the street. He was later found with cable ties around his neck, wrists and legs.
The victim had been out for a meal in Manchester city centre before being set upon when he returned home to Fallowfield. "It seems some years ago there was some publicity to the effect that (the victim), whose address was revealed in the press, was a man who may have been thought to be cash rich. In fact fact he wasn't," the judge said.
Actually he earned a 'modest' income and was working in a care home. He was bundled into a VW Golf in Moss Side, and was tied up by his arms and feet with cable ties, and had a bag put over his head.
He was taken into a property and during the terrifying ordeal he was attacked by several masked men who hit him with a metal bar and bats, and pistol whipped him. A gun was pointed at him, he was punched to the face, his feet and shins were hit with metal bars or a hammer, and his toes were cut with a 'sharp implement'.
His captors initialled demanded £250,000 in return for his freedom, but they later lowered their demands to £50,000. After about an hour-and-a-half, he was dragged into a car and dumped on a street in Salford, still tied up and badly injured.
Blake Evers, 24, was linked to the crime after his fingerprints were found on a car, and through phone evidence. He was jailed for 19 years after pleading guilty to causing grievous bodily harm and possession of a prohibited firearm.
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