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Robbery victim tortured with boiling water
A ROBBER has been jailed for 11 years for the horrific torture of a man in his own home, during which an accomplice splashed boiling water onto his genitals and he was left tied up in a cupboard for half an hour.
Steven Khan punched, kicked and stood on 61-year-old Trevor Marsden's chest while demanding his bank card and when he failed to hand it over, Anne Marie Wall began pouring water from a freshly boiled kettle on to his testicles and groin "a splash at a time".
Nadim Bashir, prosecuting, told Leeds Crown Court yesterday the pair had pulled down their frail victim's underwear as he lay helpless and in pain on the floor.
Wall then splashed water on to him about four times as he tried to protect himself with his hands, desperately telling them he only had 4 in his account.
The callous pair refused to believe him and eventually he told them his PIN number and they took his bank card from his pocket.
Mr Bashir said Khan then tied Mr Marsden's hands behind his back with the telephone wire, passing it between his legs before tying them as well.
He then shoved him into a cupboard telling him: "If you come out before we are back you're dead."
The pair then went to a bank and made two attempts to withdraw cash, first 50 and then 100 but were unsuccessful because Mr Marsden only had 3.54 in his account.
They then returned to his flat in Leeds where Khan apologised telling him: "We've both been rattling all day for drugs."
Having untied Mr Marsden, Wall then put on a record and both she and Khan danced in front of the injured man before she helped herself to some teabags and the pair left.
Mr Marsden required treatment in Leeds General Infirmary to four per cent burns on his scrotum, upper thigh and fingers.
Khan, 41, and Wall, 30, both of no fixed address, had previously admitted robbery. She is currently being assessed in a psychiatric unit and will be sentenced at a later date.
Jailing Khan, Judge Ian Dobkin said the offence "would send shivers down the spines of people who live by themselves and older people".
"This was a disgraceful piece of behaviour, frightening, nasty, vicious. It may well be that you were not initially responsible for the idea of the water, but you did nothing to stop it. You were a part of that as much as anybody else."
The court heard Mr Marsden had met Wall before and let her into his home when she called on July 2.
They had a drink but as she went to the door to leave Khan entered and ordered Mr Marsden back upstairs where his ordeal began.
Khan had previously been sentenced to six years in prison for grievous bodily harm in 1996 for a similar offence when a man's hands were tied and he was beaten to get his PIN number.
Richard Woolfall, for Khan, said he had got back on to drugs while living rough on the streets and his addiction was behind the offence.
After the case Detective Inspector Simon Atkinson said: "This was an incredibly cruel crime in which the victim was attacked in his own home and systematically tortured resulting in terrible injuries.
"It was a prolonged and terrifying ordeal that has left him scarred for life. They showed a complete disregard for the victim, and their behaviour, while he lay there in severe pain for a considerable time, is bizarre to say the least.
"It is reassuring that incidents involving this appalling level violence are thankfully very rare."
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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