A growing number of people are falling victim to kidnappings. The latest Home Office figures show there were a total of 6,756 kidnappings recorded by police forces in England and Wales last year, up by 20% from 5,618 kidnappings in 2020. That is also the highest seen in the last decade and more than quadruple the 1,525 recorded in 2011.
It comes as a fictional kidnapping has been played out onscreen in the long-running soap Coronation Street. Fans of the show have recently been following the troubles of Kelly Neelan - played by Millie Gibson - who was abducted by her criminal dad’s old acquaintances in a bid to get a £50,000 ransom.
Kidnapping is defined as taking someone away by force or fraud and then keeping them illegally imprisoned without their consent. It can include adult and child victims. It might involve enticing a partner to a house and refusing to let them leave, a parent taking and keeping a child without the consent of their legal guardian, or the planned kidnap of someone for ransom or political purposes.
The National Crime Agency says kidnapping includes other offences in the same category, which “involve restricting or controlling someone’s movement”, such as false imprisonment, some modern slavery and exploitation offences, and some human trafficking offences. The NCA says some of these offences are relatively new, which may explain the rise over the last few years.
It says its Anti Kidnap and Extortion Unit receives an average of around 500 reports of planned kidnappings for ransom each year. Kidnapping does not include child abduction, however, which is a separate offence defined as taking a child away from a person or place they should lawfully be with.
That might include someone who is unconnected to the child detaining them without due authority, or a parent or guardian taking a child out of the UK without the consent of another parent or guardian. In 2021, there were 998 child abductions recorded in England and Wales. That compares to 983 in 2020 and 1145 before the pandemic in 2019.
One of the most horrific examples of kidnapping in recent times is Joseph McCann, a convicted burglar who was freed after a probation service error at the start of 2019. Over 15 days in the Spring of that year he abducted, raped and assaulted victims aged between 11 and 71 in Watford, London, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Cheshire.
He was found guilty of 37 charges, including kidnap and false imprisonment, and was sentenced to serve 33 life sentences.
But perhaps the most famous UK kidnapping case in the 21st century is that of Shannon Matthews, who was reported missing in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire in 2008 at the age of nine. In fact, Shannon’s kidnapping had been faked by her mum, Karen Matthews and Michael Donovan, the uncle of Matthews’ boyfriend.
Shannon was found unharmed but sedated at Donovan’s home after a 24-day search. Donovan told police he and Matthews had planned the abduction to claim reward money. Matthews and Donovan were found guilty of false imprisonment, kidnap and perverting the course of justice and sentenced to eight years.
