Former Billingham Paratrooper Jailed

3 April 2012, 12:41 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50

A former paratrooper from Billingham's has been jailed for 8 years for the kidnap and torture of two brothers after a property deal went wrong.

40 year old Anthony Malone, attacked brothers Mohammed and Haq Narwaz after a business meeting had been set up at offices in Stoke Newington in London, on Friday April 20th 2007.

Malone and an accomplice conducted a terrifying nine-hour ordeal in which the brothers were handcuffed, whipped, hit with a hammer and threatened with a blowtorch.

Malone fled to Afghanistan following the offences and was jailed for two years in Kabul's Pol-I-Charki jail for owing local businessmen money.

Malone, of no fixed address, was convicted of kidnap, false imprisonment and actual bodily harm during his trial - in which he twice fired his legal team.

His accomplice, 40 year old Ranjit Gojra, of Belvedere in Kent, was also convicted of actual bodily harm and sentenced to 30 months in jail.

The jury had heard that Mohammed Narwaz, then aged 27, was involved in a row about the financing of the property deal and a meeting was set up to resolve it.

He took along his brother Haq, then 51, and they were confronted by Malone, Gojra and another man.

Judge Zeidman told Malone:
"You were adamant, as you still are, that you did nothing wrong - there is no mitigation of a guilty plea.

Given the cruelty of your involvement and taking into account all the factors I have decided the least possible total sentence is eight years.''