Beheading threat pair jailed over kidnapping

South Yorkshire Police confirmed Abdul Miah, 29, was jailed for 15 years and Liban Mohammed, 20, jailed for 11 years after being found guilty of kidnap and blackmail at Sheffield Crown Court.

Miah was sentenced to a further two years after admitting a separate offence of making more than 1,000 nuisance and malicious calls to the emergency services, including a series of bomb hoaxes.

The court heard the teenager was snatched from outside an off-licence in Staniforth Road, in the Darnall area of Sheffield, on October 31 where he had been chatting with friends.

He was held for six hours, during which time he was hooded with a makeshift balaclava and forced to relay threats to his parents by phone that his arms, legs and head would be cut off if his father did not pay a £40,000 ransom.

After the kidnap was reported to police, the terrified boy was dumped in countryside at Ringinglow, on the edge of the Peak District, and ran to a farmhouse.

Police said Miah and Mohammed were caught using DNA evidence and telephone call data. Both claimed in court it had been a staged scam which the boy was in on.

Miah, from Flaxby Road, Darnall, and Mohammed, from Balfour Drive, also in Darnall, were found guilty following a month-long trial. Two other men were found not guilty of the same charges.

After Miah was found guilty of the kidnapping, he admitted a charge of public nuisance relating to hundreds of malicious calls, the North East Counter Terrorism Unit (Nectu). He attempted to cause significant disruption with claims that bombs had been planted in London and were being manufactured in Bradford and transported from the West Midlands late last year.