Bolton drug dealer who held man captive learns his fate

Danish Dar, 24, held the vulnerable young man prisoner in a flat in Bolton town centre, where he plied him with drugs and forced him to hand over his benefits to pay off a debt.

But Bolton Crown Court heard how the worst treatment yet was in store towards the end of the two weeks the victim was held in February last year.

Judge Nicholas Clarke KC said: “At various stages you slapped him and you also taped him up with duct tape.”

He added: “It seems when you went to the house you made him strip down and act like a dog.”

The case was heard at Bolton Crown Court (Image: Newsquest)

Dressed in a grey t-shirt Dar, of Darwin Street, Halliwell looked on impassively via video link from prison as Judge Clarke noted he had filmed some of the degrading rituals on his mobile phone.

The court had previously heard from prosecutor Hannah Forsyth how the plot had come about after the victim built up a drug debt of around £2000 owed to Dar.

Dar and another man decided that they would keep the indebted victim in the man’s town centre flat as he paid off his debt with money from his benefits.

He eventually paid off around £1000.

Addressing the defendant, Judge Clarke said: “It is clear that you were pursuing him in relation money that was owed by him to you as part of a drugs debt.”

He added: “It was clear that by this stage he had effectively been imprisoned by you and was effectively under your control.”

The victim was finally found “in a dishevelled state” and freed after a police raid on February 10 last year, by which time he had been held for around two weeks.

Dar himself was arrested after police raided his family home where they found heroin, cocaine, ketamine and MDMA with cash, knives, snap bags, a Nokia mobile phone and a list of names.

Questioned by police, Dar said that his treatment of his captive had been “stern.”

Officers had found six separate videos on Dar’s phone of the victim acting like a dog and one of him having water poured over his face has he slept.

Judge Clarke said: “You say that you slapped him and that the drugs you provided to him were your way of saying sorry.”

He added: “At the time of the incident he could hear the bells in the town centre and when he hears them now they remind him of the incident and trigger his post-traumatic stress disorder.”

Brought before the magistrates court, Dar, who has no previous convictions, pleaded guilty to false imprisonment.

He also confessed to four charges of possession with intent to supply Class A drugs and conspiracy to supply Class A drugs.

The court had previously heard from Rebecca Cauldfield, defending, how Dar, who has no previous convictions, had endured a “difficult” upbringing.

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She also said that he himself was in debt to other drug dealers and had been desperately trying to pay them off.

Judge Clarke also heard how a brain injury Dar had previously suffered made “impulsive” behaviour more likely.

But he said he was “not persuaded” that this reduced the 24-year-old’s criminal responsibility, given how the victim was treated in “such a degrading manner.”

Judge Clarke also noted a probation report which said Dar had shown “little if any victim empathy” and “displayed a pattern of wanting quick and easy solutions to your problems.”

He jailed Dar for a total of nine and a half years.