Four jailed for over five decades after brutal kidnapping and assault in Newcastle
Two men were assaulted and interrogated in December 2022
Four men have been jailed for a total of 54 years for the brutal assault and kidnap of two men in Newcastle-under-Lyme.
Egidijus Savickas, Dovydas Smilginis, Modestas Stoskus and Mohammed Nasar were sentenced at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court today (Tuesday 4 June).
Savickas, 29, of Bootle, Merseyside, and Smilginis, 34, of London, were found guilty of two counts of kidnapping, causing grievous bodily harm (GBH) with intent, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, having an article with a blade or point and having an offensive weapon following a trial at the same court in September 2023.
They were both jailed for 14 years’ imprisonment for GBH with intent involving one of the victims, and given concurrent sentences of 13 years for kidnapping the same victim, eight years for kidnapping the second victim, 15 months for assaulting the second victim, 18 months for possession of a knife and nine months for possession of a baseball bat.
Stoskus, 32, of Dudley, and Mohammed Nasar, 40, of Birmingham, pleaded guilty to the same offences as the other at the start of a trial in July 2023.
Stoskus was jailed for 13 years and six months for GBH with intent involving one of the victims, and given concurrent sentences of 11 years and eight months for kidnapping the same victim, seven years and two months for kidnapping the second victim, 13 months for assaulting the second victim, 16 months for possession of a knife and 35 weeks for possession of a baseball bat.
Nasar was jailed for 12 years and seven months for GBH with intent involving one of the victims, and given concurrent sentences of 11 years and eight months for kidnapping the same victim, seven years and two months for kidnapping the second victim, 13 months for assaulting the second victim, 16 months for possession of a knife and 35 weeks for possession of a baseball bat.
On the evening of 19 December 2022, the defendant’s travelled from different parts of the country and met close to where they were meeting two victims in Chesterton in Newcastle-under-Lyme. The men had planned to kidnap and assault the two men.
Stoskus met the two of them and they went with him to his car. The two men were not expecting any trouble. However, the car was driven a short distance to a secluded road, Meadow Street, surrounded by industrial buildings – where the others were waiting. It had been pre-selected by the defendants’ group and it was the ideal location to do what they did next.
Once the car got there, the doors were opened, the two victims were sprayed in the eyes with pepper spray and they were dragged out. They were set upon with bats and knives. They were bound with duct tape and both of the victims were interrogated.
The two victims were put into the boots of two cars, which drove off. One of the victims, less badly injured than his friend, managed to break out during the journey and get away. He made it to a house and the occupants got help. He had bruising to his head, face and shoulder.
The other victim barely survived. He was seriously injured and was dumped, tied up with duct tape, in a residential street in Stoke-on-Trent in the middle of the night. Luckily, a member of the public noticed him in the road and got help. He had extensive bruising to his upper thighs, arms and shoulders, a deep cut to his shoulder, a stab wound to his right thigh, a broken leg and a broken arm. He needed surgery for his fractures and was admitted to intensive care. He was treated for sepsis and kidney failure. He wasn’t discharged from critical care until 5 February 2023.
We arrested Savickas, Smilginis, Stoskus and Nasar between December 2022 and February 2023.
Detective Inspector Ian Fitzgerald, of our Major Investigations Department, said: “This was a brutal pre-planned attack, with all four men having a role. They trussed and bound the victims, savagely attacked them with weapons, bundled them into car boots and drove them away to be dumped. One of the victims was nearly killed and spent a few months recovering in hospital.
“Thankfully, this type of crime is very rare in Staffordshire. Today’s sentencing will hopefully send out a strong message that this sort of criminality has no place on our streets.”