WIDOW’S KIDNAP ORDEAL
WOMAN BUNDLED INTO BOOT AFTER INTERVENING IN GARAGE ROW – THEN CONFRONTED ON HER DOORSTEP BY THUG’S TEENAGE PALS
He grabbed her by the throat and started punching her to the top of the head Phillip Boyd, prosecuting
A WIDOW was bundled into a car and kidnapped in a terrifying revenge abduction after she bravely intervened in a row at a service station.
The woman was followed home following the argument, accosted in the street, beaten up and forced into the boot of a car for almost 40 minutes. The victim, who is her 50s, was later harangued by two friends of her kidnapper who turned up on her doorstep. They urged her not to implicate her attacker in the abduction saying he was due to become a father.
“I have had difficulties sleeping, I have flashbacks and have woken up in cold sweats,” she said in a statement. “I no longer feel safe in the house on my own. I lock all my doors and windows when I am in bed. I feel paranoid that someone is going to break in.
“When I was kidnapped, I was a few hundred yards from my home and I truly believed I was going to be killed. I was truly frightened. I was outgoing before the incident but now I am scared of living on my own and I am scared of them coming back.’ I am having to get taxis everywhere because I am afraid.’’
Andrzej Kroll, 22, from Bury, was jailed for three years and four months after he admitted kidnapping and perverting justice at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court.
Anna Bozek and Malgoizata Baldyga, both 19, admitted perverting justice and were each sentenced to a 12-month community order and 100 hours of unpaid work.
The court heard the victim had gone to a Texaco petrol station in Radcliffe to buy groceries at midnight on August 10 last year.
Prosecutor Phillip Boyd said: “A car pulled up as she waited to get served and she overheard a man giving verbal abuse to the cashier. She intervened and he gave abuse to her as well. She identified the man as being Kroll. “He went back to his car and the car drove off, and she left the shop and walked back home. But she became aware of a car approaching behind her and driving slowly and was very concerned. The car went past her and she passed it again further up the road. Suddenly the car stopped and the boot opened and a man got out of the car and manhandled her. “He grabbed her by the throat and started punching her to the top of the head. Once she was in the car, the car then drove off. It stopped once during the journey and it seemed there was a struggle between her and someone in the car. “She kicked out, but someone forced her leg back into the boot and shut it. There were other people in the car at the time. She then recalls the car being driven off again. After some time, the car stopped and the driver got out. He was the only person in the car. The boot was opened and she was manhandled and dumped against a wall. The car then drove off.’’ The woman was in deep distress after her ordeal and struggled to walk and appeared to be nauseous, dizzy and confused. She had a wound to the top of her head and extensive bruising to both arms and right leg, the court heard.
Polish-born warehouseman Kroll was arrested after his DNA was found on a cigarette butt discarded at the scene as the car was driven away. As he awaited trial, the victim was confronted by Bozek and Baldyga on her front doorstep.
“One of them said ‘Was it you in the boot of the car?’ and she replied Yes,” Mr Boyd said.
“They then told her that the man in this situation had got their friend, his girlfriend, pregnant, and they asked her not to continue with her allegation as he could go to prison and get sent back to Poland and won’t see his baby.
“They then showed the victim a photograph of the defendant and she confirmed that was him. The girl then said: “You must be able to do something about it as he won’t be able to see his baby.”
The victim said she was going to continue with the prosecution and would go to court.
“She said she was really worried about how they got her address and was worried they were going to come back. She said she felt intimidated when she found out who they were,” Mr Boyd added. Police discovered that Kroll had managed to get the victim’s address from a friend and asked his girlfriend to offer her ‘hush money’ not to go to court.
The unnamed girlfriend who drove the two teenagers to see the victim was given a caution for witness intimidation. Kroll later admitted being in the car at the time of the kidnapping but claimed another man forced the victim into the car.
Anthony Metzer, defending Kroll, said he had grown up in an orphanage and moved to the UK after running away.
“He had a greatly difficult childhood but found a job and has been in a relationship with his girlfriend since he came here,” he said.
“He was in drink at the time of the kidnap matter. He says he fell asleep in the front passenger seat of the car. He has a very poor recollection of what happened although he accepts taking her out of the boot. He is genuinely remorseful.”
David Morton, defending college student Bozek, of Bollington, near Macclesfield, said: “She oozes regret and remorse in its entirety for the victim.”
Baldyga’s lawyer, Oliver Jarvis said: “She was there to offer support for her friend. There was no persistence or even a degree of persistence, this was a single act.’’