Three men threatened to feed torture victim ‘to pigs’ during nine

The men had hit their victim with a hammer, shot him with a crossbow and threatened to feed him to the pigs

Kidnap thug Adam Potts.

Three men who subjected a kidnap victim to an horrific nine-hour torture ordeal are facing "very heavy" jail sentences, a court heard this week.

The men had hit their victim with a hammer, shot him with a crossbow and threatened to feed him to the pigs.

The trio – Adam Potts (26), Mervyn Gibson (49) and Conor Campbell (30) – were due to be sentenced at Newry Crown Court on Wednesday, but with question marks over the level of risk they pose, Judge Gordon Kerr KC adjourned the case for further reports.

With maximum sentences of life imprisonment for two of the offences, he warned that given the suggested sentencing range of seven to 15 years for their "very grave offences", his starting point before he considers aggravating and mitigating features "will be very, very high in that range".

Potts, from Pine View Court in Gilford; Gibson, from Woodview Park in Tandragee; and Campbell, from Pinebank in Craigavon, all entered guilty pleas to kidnapping the victim on November 8 2020 and inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent.

While Gibson also admitted a further charge of having a crossbow with intent to cause GBH, Potts entered guilty pleas to having a hammer and pliers with the same intent.

According to a summary of the Crown case compiled by prosecuting counsel Geraldine McCullough, the victim was at his flat in Co Armagh when Potts and Gibson arrived just after midnight.

Shoving him on to his sofa, Potts used a hammer to hit him full force on each knee and, dragging the "screaming" victim down the stairs, they forced him into a car being driven by Campbell.

On the 15-minute drive to a bungalow in the countryside, Gibson was "constantly" punching and elbowing the terrified victim who "did not retaliate, out of fear".

When they reached the bungalow, Gibson held the victim's hand on a windowsill while Potts "smacked his hand twice with the hammer" before stabbing him in the leg with a knife.

Forced back into the car where Gibson again rained blows on his head and upper body, Campbell drove them over the border while the kidnappers "talked about killing him and feeding him to pigs".

Fearing he was going to be killed, the victim told cops how they drove around looking for a village and for Travellers "where he would get his head kicked in and he would disappear for good".

Ms McCullough outlined how "they talked about having to burn the car but if they did, they would burn him in it".

Eventually they ended up back at Gibson's house where he talked about his crossbow and "about getting cocaine or MDMA". Gibson shot the victim three times with the crossbow, firstly in his left ankle, with the bolt "going straight through," then his right knee and then his left.

That was the last time the victim was shot because even with him screaming in pain again, Gibson was not able to retrieve the bolt from where it was lodged in his kneecap, despite Gibson pushing and pulling at it with pliers, and shouting at his victim to "stop screaming". He wasn't the only one to use the pliers, however, as Potts had used them to break one of the victim's fingers.

Potts also hit him twice in the testicles with a litre bottle of vodka and stabbed him three times, making the chilling comment at one stage, while sticking the knife into an already existing stab wound, that "I’ll tell you one thing, you have a high tolerance for pain".

"He also remembered that Potts had bitten his ear and threatened to rip his ear off," Ms McCullough told the court.

More concerned about getting their hands on a bag of coke, the callous assailants "complained about the victim getting blood on the sofa" and, bundling him back into car again, he was driven to Portadown.

Ditched at the roadside near the bonfire site at Edgarstown at around 8am, the badly injured victim tried to wave down passing cars but eventually encountered a man out walking who called for help.

In addition to the crossbow bolt still embedded in his knee, the victim had sustained stab wounds in his upper and lower limbs, a broken left middle finger as well as generalised facial swelling and bruising.

Surgeons had to insert steel pins in his knee which was held in a brace for six months and "even now, he still has mobility issues and uses a walking stick".

In addition to significant pain, the victim suffers from psychological consequences such as PTSD, disturbed sleep and nightmares.

Despite his injuries, the victim was able to identify the defendants in a video police line-up and the court heard there was also DNA and forensic evidence to connect each of the defendants to the shocking assault.

Arrested and interviewed, they all denied involvement but each of their barristers conceded that by admitting their guilt in the joint enterprise, "there's no doubt the court is considering very heavy sentences".

"This is a horrendous case, as bad of a case as you can get," Potts’ defence lawyer Richard Weir QC told the court.

Remanding Potts back into custody while freeing Gibson and Campbell on bail, Judge Kerr adjourned for further reports to help him in deciding whether the trio pose a significant risk of causing serious harm to the public which would invoke enhanced sentencing powers including extended sentences or an indeterminate sentence.