FAMILY OF THUGS
Parents, daughter and pal abducted, battered and burned ex-partner and his new girlfriend
A YOUNG couple were abducted, beaten up and burned by a family armed with a knuckleduster and a knife hidden in a Smarties tube.
Zoe Maitland, 21, led a gang including stepmum Charmaine Maitland, 42, dad Barry Maitland and friend Christopher Baird, 25, as they assaulted her former partner and his new lover in a “petrifying” revenge attack.
The attack happened at the home Maitland shared in Kirkwall, Orkney, with her ex until he ended their three-year relationship.
The gang, who were motivated by the perceived bad treatment of Maitland by her former partner, found the young couple at the address and kept them there before carrying out the assault.
Maitland repeatedly kicked and punched the woman and Barry Maitland, from Aberdeen, used a knuckleduster on her former partner. He placed a lit cigar on the face of his daughter’s ex and produced a long-bladed knife from a large Smarties tube, Kirkwall Sheriff Court heard.
Baird, whose address was given as HMP Grampian, admitted holding the man against his will, forcing him to the ground and repeatedly punching him on the head and body while wearing a knuckleduster.
Both victims had their mobile phones taken and were told their fingers would be broken if they tried to get them back.
They were also warned they couldn’t leave the house.
The female victim, who told the court she was kicked and punched through the living room doorway by Zoe and Charmaine Maitland, wept as she remembered hearing her partner screaming in pain from the bedroom.
She said: “Baz said he would deal with [my partner], and that Zoe and Charmaine would deal with me, because he didn’t hit women.”
She added that her partner had then been brought into the living room, battered and bruised, and Barry Maitland had placed duct tape over his mouth and burnt his face with a lit cigar.
Maitland then produced a knife from a tube of Smarties and walked about the room.
The female victim was let out but had been too scared to contact police. She said: “Baz said we could tell who we liked but if he served time for it then they would come back and finish the job.”
Zoe Maitland denied her father had beaten up her former partner, despite messages she sent to the male victim’s sister indicating he had been “punched about a bit” and that her dad “went too far”.
Zoe Maitland, Charmaine Maitland and Baird admitted assault and abduction charges, while Barry Maitland was convicted of assault and abduction. They will be sentenced at Wick Sheriff Court next month.