Vigilantes jailed after kidnap and horrific attack on teenager

After bundling Omar El-Hawary into the back of a car, during a terrifying 10 mile journey his attackers repeatedly hit him, leaving him bloodied and bruised, and videoed his ordeal.

In footage shown at Bolton Crown Court they tell him: “Look at the camera now lad. Look at the camera. You see you lad, it’s going all over Facebook.

“Look at the blood on your face lad. You’re gonna walk home naked.”

Appearing in court via video link from custody, Joshua Duffy, aged 22, was jailed for four years and six months and Harrison Campbell, aged 19, for the same period in a young offenders’ institution.

Recorder Michael Blakey said: “The defendants were under the mistaken belief that Mr El-Hawary had stolen, I think a moped. That doesn’t appear to be the case, but even if it was, there is absolutely no justification for doing what they did.

“It must have been an exceptionally frightening situation for Mr El-Hawary - him wondering and fearing what on earth was going to happen to him.”

Joshua Duffy

Andrew Evans, prosecuting, told how, on February 23, Mr El-Hawary was told by a friend that Duffy was looking for him, suspecting he had stolen a motor scooter.

“Mr El-Hawary knew nothing of this and arranged to meet Duffy to tell him as much,” said Mr Evans.

Just after midday Duffy and Campbell met up with their victim and Duffy demanded he get into his VW Golf.

The court was shown CCTV footage, from Halliwell Road, of Duffy and Campbell then dragging him him towards the car and forcing him into the back of the vehicle.

An eyewitness told police that the attackers had a baseball bat and an axe, with Duffy using the axe to hit his victim three or four times in the back.

With Campbell driving and another man in the front passenger seat, Duffy pinned Mr El-Hawary down using an elbow on his neck while continuing to hit his legs with the blunt side of the axe.

Harrison Campbell

Duffy boasted: “You are f***ed now. We are going to take you up Rivi, strip you b*****k naked and make you walk home.”

Mr El-Hawary recalled how, during the journey, a fourth man, carrying a machete, got into the car and threatened to “eat him alive” and “make him bleed”, while Harrison taunted the victim for crying.

The man with the machete continued to punch 18-year-old Mr El-Hawary and the front seat passenger shoved a baseball bat into his face through a gap in the headrest.

The ordeal was filmed by Duffy, who later uploaded it to Facebook.

“When the car reached a layby near Rivington Duffy made good on his threat to force Mr El-Hawary to strip, telling him if he didn’t then one of then he would be killed.

After the victim’s phone was taken and £100 from his pocket, Mr El-Hawary was shoved from the car and forced to undress whilst Campbell filmed him.

“He was beaten again before the men left, with his clothes, in the car,” said Mr Evans.

Mr El-Hawary, dressed only in shorts and vest and covered in blood, managed to flag down a passing motorist, who took him to a police station, where he named Campbell and Duffy as his attackers.

He was treated at hospital for extensive bruising and swelling on his face and limbs, bleeding in one eye, a fractured finger and the bridge of his nose was displaced.

A witness, who had seen the victim being bundled into the Golf, made a note of its registration number and police spotted it being driven in the Smithills area at 1pm, with the driver trying to hide his face from them.

Then, at 1.20pm, the car was discovered abandoned in a cul-de-sac and Duffy, of Arnold Street, Bolton, was arrested after a chase on foot through woodland. Inside the vehicle were blood stains, along with an axe and baseball bat.

Campbell, of Temple Road, Bolton, handed himself into police on March 1 and both men subsequently pleaded guilty to kidnap and causing actual bodily harm. In addition, Campbell admitted possessing a baseball bat.

Alexandra Sutton, defending Duffy, who has no previous convictions, said he accepts his involvement in the crime.

“The defendant’s actions were fuelled by a misguided impulse to punish this complainant for perceived wrongdoing,” she said.

Miss Sutton added that Duffy described the attack as “the worst mistake of my life”.

Robert Kearney, defending Campbell, who was said to have Asperger’s syndrome, said he had not thought about the consequences of his behaviour.

“He was always bound to be caught,” he added.

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