Janzib Rigby, 30, Kimberley Green, 43, Marshall Atkinson, 18, Cody McGiffen, 18, and a 17-year-old boy were sentenced for their parts in the ordeal suffered by their vulnerable 28-year-old victim
A woman has told how she has been left with PTSD after she was tricked into leaving her home before being kidnapped, Tasered and driven out onto moorland in a terrifying 12-hour ordeal.
A trial heard how the victim was falsely imprisoned at two properties, Tasered in the face and strip searched, before being driven to the moors and told that she would be left there.
Money lender Janzib Rigby and his associate Kimberley Green were jailed for their parts in the kidnapping, which saw the ‘vulnerable’, 28-year-old drug user lured into Green’s home on January 7 last year.
“[The woman] was forced to endure a frightening, humiliating and protracted ordeal in which you each played a material part,” Judge Sarah Johnson told Rigby, Green and three other defendants also sentenced for their part in the crime.
Rigby, 30, and Green, 43, were jailed, while three others – Marshall Atkinson, 18, Cody McGiffen, 18, and a 17-year-old boy who cannot be named for legal reasons – were also sentenced.
Manchester Crown Court heard how Green saw the woman on the Holts estate, near her home on Victoria Street in Oldham on January 7 last year.
She told the woman there was an “urgent call” for her and invited her inside from the freezing cold weather, the Manchester Evening News reports. The woman had no idea it was the beginning of an ordeal, which has left her suffering from PTSD.
Green called Rigby, who had previously lent the victim cash with extortionate interest piled on. He arrived at the property with McGiffen and the 17-year-old boy, with Atkinson attending later.
“I cannot be sure each of you knew the extent to which [the woman] was to be detained that day,” the judge said. But it began her period of detention. In the house, she was Tasered in the body by the 17-year-old, and Tasered in the face, head and body by Atkinson.
The pair were ‘guided by others’, the judge said. Green then took the woman upstairs, where she subjected her to a ‘degrading’ strip search and took money she had in her underwear. Atkinson, meanwhile, ‘bragged’ in messages to others about what he was doing.
“This was utterly inhumane treatment of a vulnerable member of your community,” the judge said. The woman had called her mother asking for money to help secure her release.
Her mother contacted police, and the force negotiator worked with her throughout the day in a bid to track down her daughter. The victim was then moved to a second property, on Wildmoor Avenue. Later, she was driven to Saddleworth Moor, where she was told she would be left there in the dark.
“This was utter torment for her, and nothing more than sport for you,” Judge Johnston said. She was released after 11pm, after police intercepted the car she was being driven in as they made their way back to the house on Wildmoor Avenue.
The woman told of the terrible impact her ordeal has had in a statement read in court on her behalf. She said: “I have spent three stints in mental health units since what happened. I suffer from complex PTSD as well as hallucinations and flashbacks.
“I have tried to take my own life on five occasions. I can honestly say this is directly as a result of what happened to me. I think about it every day, every hour, every minute, the fear and humiliation that I suffered.
“I started to self harm. It is the only release I have to take my mind away from what happened.” Jailing Rigby for eight years, the judge told him he had shown ‘cold indifference’ to his victim’s plight. Green was jailed for five years.
The 17-year-old was sentenced to a youth rehabilitation order, while McGiffen was sentenced to an 18-month community order. Atkinson’s sentencing was deferred for six months.
Rigby, of Shaw, pleaded guilty to false imprisonment; two counts of kidnap; and was found guilty of robbery. He was found not guilty of perverting the course of justice and possessing a prohibited weapon.
Atkinson, of Oldham, pleaded guilty to false imprisonment; possessing cannabis; and possessing a prohibited weapon. He was found not guilty of robbery and kidnap. Green, of Victoria Street, Oldham, was found guilty of false imprisonment; robbery and kidnap.
McGiffen, of Oldham, was found guilty of false imprisonment and kidnap. He pleaded guilty to a second count of kidnap; and was found not guilty of robbery.
The 17-year-old boy pleaded guilty to false imprisonment and possessing a prohibited weapon; and was found guilty of kidnap. He was found not guilty of robbery; and a second count of kidnap.
