A thug imprisoned a man before torturing and stabbing him over an unpaid drug debt.
Anthony Smith, 41, from Croxteth, bound the man's hands and feet before beating, stabbing and threatening him at a home in Swansea. Swansea Crown Court heard how Smith told his victim he was going to be buried in a makeshift grave in the garden, and his girlfriend was going to be tied up and dragged behind a car as it drove along the motorway.
The shocking incident took place in the early hours of October 4 this year when the victim was invited to the property by defendant Joshua Murphy, WalesOnline reports.
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Sian Cutter, prosecuting said Smith bound the man's hands and feet and repeatedly slapped and punched him while demanding money and the return of his "stuff". Smith then armed himself with a two-pronged butcher's fork which he jabbed into his victim's thighs and feet.
The prosecutor said at one stage Smith sat on a chair and made the victim lay on the floor and do sit ups in his direction - every time the man raised his body and head to do a sit up, Smith would slap him hard across the face and force him to do another. The court heard the man felt unable to refuse to do the sit ups as Smith still had the large fork.
At one stage, the victim lay on his side on the floor, Smith jumped with both feet onto the man's hip. All the while the victim was begging him to stop, and said he would get him the money he wanted.
The prosecutor said 41-year-old Smith also issued a series of lurid threats including to dig a grave in the garden and dump his victim in it, to cut his ears off with a knife, to break his legs, and to tie up his girlfriend with rope and drag her along behind a car driving down the motorway. The court heard by now Smith was demanding not the original £100 but some £600.
The court heard 26-year-old Murphy filmed some of the incident on his phone, and at one stage moved in closer to the action to get a better angle. Eventually, the man was allowed to leave the flat when he told his attackers he could borrow the money from his mum.
Smith escorted his victim to his mum's house where the money was handed over. Smith then apologised to his victim before giving him a final punch in the ribs.
The following day Murphy contacted the man again and told him Smith had left, and he could collect personal items which he had left in the flat during his detention. However, this was a trap to extort more cash from the victim.
When the man arrived to collect his possessions Smith was hiding behind a door in the flat - he jumped out, held the knife to the man's cheek and throat, and demanded more money while threatening to harm his mother if he didn't pay up.
The man went to his mother who was waiting outside in a car but when she saw a fresh wound to her son's cheek she drove to a police station and both the knife-point robbery and the kidnapping of the previous night were reported.
The court heard police went to the flats and arrested Smith and Murphy. Police found a number of the ties which had been used to bind the man, along with the two-pronged meat fork in the flat.
Messages recovered from Murphy's phone showed Smith had been involved in the supply of cocaine, and had both been involved in pursuing their victim over an unpaid debt. Police then also found the sickening videos Murphy had recorded.
Murphy subsequently gave a "no comment" interview to officers, while Smith said he had been in Swansea visiting a friend and was recovering drugs which he said the victim had stolen from a drugs gang.
In an impact statement which was read to the court, the victim said the experience had left him anxious, fearful and unable to sleep, and concerned for his mother's safety.
Anthony Smith, of Sovereign Road, Croxteth, Liverpool, and Joshua Murphy, of Llys Elba, Gowerton, Swansea, had both previously pleaded guilty to false imprisonment, unlawful wounding, blackmail, robbery, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and being concerned in the supply of cocaine when they appeared in the dock for sentencing.
Smith has 18 previous convictions for 27 offences including assault and carrying a knife - offences committed in Scotland - and two for Class A drug trafficking. Murphy has 10 previous convictions for 13 offences including violent disorder, common assault, drug driving, and possession of a Class B drug with intent to supply committed when he was a youth.
Hywel Davies, for Smith, said his client accepted a custodial sentence was inevitable, and the only question was how long the term would be. He said the father-of-five had struggled with drug addiction but had gone on to spend 12 years working on oil rigs in the North Sea before the death of his father caused a relapse into drug use shortly before he committed the offences before the court.
Ieuan Rees, for Murphy, said until a conviction for drug-driving in 2019 his client had held down a job with Coastal Housing social landlords, and following his loss of employment his involvement with drugs had increased. The barrister said the defendant's partner lived in Newcastle, and upon his release from the inevitable custodial sentence he was facing Murphy wished to move to the North East of England to get away from the influences he had on his life.
Judge Geraint Walters said the defendants had detained and assaulted their victim in a "sadistic" attack after luring him to the property, and what had happened in the Swansea flat could properly be described as a "punishment beating". He said that while Murphy had not physically assaulted their victim he had seemed to take pleasure in filming it "for the sport of it all".
He added the only real mitigation in the case were the defendants' guilty pleas. With a one-third discount for his guilty pleas Murphy was sentenced to a total of five years in prison, and with a one-quarter discount for his guilty pleas - which were entered at a later stage - Smith was sentenced to a total of eight years in prison.
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