Five people who imprisoned and tortured a drug addict after he went to a house in Gainsborough looking to buy MCat were today given jail sentences totalling 50 years.
Victim Lee Torrance was left terrified after he was repeatedly kicked and punched before being handcuffed and subjected to water-boarding.
During a two hour ordeal a hand gun was also put into his mouth and then rammed against his head.
Aivaras Sepronas
Lincoln Crown Court was told that the incident happened after he called at the home of drug dealers Aivaras Sepronas and Jurgita Makaroviene in Ashcroft Road, Gainsborough.
During the incident three other men joined in the attack and torture after being summoned to the house to assist.
Judge John Pini QC, passing sentence, described Aivaras Sepronas as the ring leader and jailed him for 18 years including a three year licence extension.
Vidas Aleksandravicius
Egidijus Zukauskas and Vidas Aleksandravicius were each jailed for 10 years. Andrius Svetickas was jailed for seven years and Jurgita Makaroviene was jailed for five years.
The judge said: “This arose out of the false imprisonment of Lee Torrance and his subsequent torture and ill-treatment at your hands. Mr Torrance was petrified. The whole ordeal was utterly terrifying for him. Quite why this happened was not resolved by the evidence but I am satisfied it was drug related.”
Aivaras Sepronas, 44, of Ashcroft Road, Gainsborough; Andrius Svetickas, 27, of Parnell Street, Gainsborough; Egidijus Zukauskas, 44, of Ashcroft Road, Gainsborough; and Vidas Aleksandravicius, 50, of Parnell Street, Gainsborough, all denied charges of false imprisonment and assault occasioning actual bodily harm as a result of the incident on November 15, 2015 but were found guilty by a jury.
Egidijus Zukauskas
Sepronas was also convicted of possession of a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence; possession of a prohibited weapon, possession of prohibited ammunition. He denied the charges. He denied supplying drugs but was found guilty by the jury on an 11 to 1 majority
Jurgita Makaroviene, 35, of Ashcroft Road, Gainsborough, denied false imprisonment and assault occasioning actual bodily harm. She was convicted of false imprisonment but cleared of assault. She was convicted of supplying drugs on a 10 to 2 majority.
During a trial earlier this year Mr Torrance described in graphic detail of how he was held prisoner and then tortured during an ordeal that lasted at least two hours.
Jugita Makaroviene
He said: “I went to the house to score drugs. I rang the bell and didn’t get an answer. I went round the back and jumped over the fence.
“A man opened the door and told me to go in and sit down.”
He said the man went to speak to two women whom he believed were also buying drugs and then began the attack.
“He started punching me all over. There was no warning.
“I didn’t try to fight back. A woman came from the living room and she was punching me as well. They were beating hell out of me.
“They put handcuffs on me. Then they put me into the corner of the room. Both of them were hitting me and punching me. They were kicking me all over.
“He had a gun. I was petrified. He poked it into my mouth and on my head.”
He said he was asked who had sent him and was then struck with a baton wielded by the woman.
Three more people then came into the room, he said, and after a further beating he was blind-folded and subjected to water-boarding.
“My shoes and socks were taken off. They were tipping water over my face. I couldn’t breathe. I was panicking.
“My head went into the bucket. All of it. There was water in the bucket. My head was submerged for thirty or forty seconds.
“My head was put in the bucket perhaps ten times. It finished because they got a cane and were whacking the bottom of my feet. I was screaming.”
He said a gun was fired into the air and then he was allowed to leave.
Mr Torrance said he made his way to the home of relatives and the emergency services were called.
In a victim impact statement read out in court Mr Torrance said that since the attack he has had to leave Gainsborough and is now receiving psychological help and counselling.
He said he lives in fear of being tracked down by his attackers and continues to have nightmares.
He said: “The incident has affected me deeply psychologically. My life is a complete mess. I can’t understand why they did this to me. I only went to score some MCat and I nearly ended up getting killed.”
Shahid Rashid, for Sepronas, said his client was asleep when Mr Torrance went into the house and he thought he was dealing with an intruder.
Mark Watson, for Makaroviene, said she was not involved in the assault and told the court: “She is clearly a good person who was living at the time in the wrong place.”
He said that since her arrest she has been diagnosed with cancer and has undergone chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment.
John Lucas, for Zukauskas, said he was a hard-working man who came to the UK from Lithuania to earn money to support his family.
“He regrets doing it. He made a fatal error of judgement and got involved.”
Michael Cranmer-Brown, for Aleksandravicius, said he was told that Sepronas had been attacked and agreed to drive Zukauskas, who was his boss, to the property.
“He came here to work and earn more money than was available in Lithuania.”
John McNally, for Svetickas, said he was asked to become involved as he speaks good English and acted as an interpreter during the incident. He then helped Mr Torrance who later told police: “If it wasn’t for him I don’t think I would have got out.”
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Lincolnshire Police are appealing for witnesses or anyone with dashcam footage following a two-vehicle collision in which a 12-year-old boy sadly died.
Following a call to police at 9.48am today (16 January), officers attended the B1190 at Bardney.
The collision involved two vehicles: a silver Mercedes-Benz A220 and a silver Ford Galaxy.
The 12-year-old boy, a passenger in the Galaxy, was sadly pronounced dead at the scene.
The driver of the Mercedes, a man, has been taken to hospital. The status of his injuries is currently unknown.
Roads have been closed following the incident while emergency services attend.
If you saw the collision, or have information, you can contact police in one of the following ways:
Call 101, quoting Incident 141 of 16 January.
Email [email protected] putting “Incident 141 of 16 January” in the subject line.
North East Lincolnshire’s MPs have stood by the Prime Minister after he apologised for breaking rules by attending a lockdown party.
Grimsby MP Lia Nici dismissed calls for him to resign, saying ‘nobody is perfect’, and Cleethorpes MP Martin Vickers said it was the wrong time to call a leadership contest.
Boris Johnson admitted this week he went to a ‘bring your own booze’ party in the first Covid lockdown.
He has apologised for the decision, saying he believed it was work related but regretted it in hindsight.
Although opposition MPs have called for him to resign, Lia Nici, Martin Vickers and other Tories have stood by him for now.
However, the Cleethorpes MP said the party was ‘irresponsible and reckless’.
“He was certainly right to apologise, and the party in question shouldn’t have taken place,” Mr Vickers said.
“I share the anger and frustration of my constituents at these events and it does appear that lockdown rules were broken. That is irresponsible, reckless and unacceptable and disciplinary action, and possibly prosecutions should follow.
“It begs the question of how it got to the stage of the events taking place. Senior figures should have realised that this was wrong and the event should never have got off the ground.”
Grimsby MP Lia Nici (Conservative)
Grimsby MP Lia Nici also welcomed his apology for breaking the rules.
“I think it’s a positive thing that he has apologised for being outside in that garden on that day in 2020,” she said.
“He clearly wanted to thank staff who have been working hard under under Covid rules. Was it advisable to thank them that way though?
“It certainly would have been safer than inside, but the email from the civil servant telling employees to ‘Bring Your Own Booze’ is concerning.
“People are quite rightly upset about it. Everyone should have been following rules that the public were abiding by.”
A probe into the parties is now being carried out by civil servant Sue Gray.
Neither MP joined the Labour party in calling for Mr Johnson to quit – but said the report should come out quickly.
Cleethorpes MP Martin Vickers (Conservative) | Photo: Steve Smailes for Lincolnshire Reporter
Mr Vickers said: “My colleagues and I need to consider what’s in the best interest of the country. A leadership contest would paralyse the country while we’re managing the pandemic and a volatile international situation.
“The last thing we want is a complete vacuum of power at the centre of government for six weeks.
“We should wait for Sue Gray’s report into the parties that is being prepared.”
Mrs Nici said: “Nobody is perfect. The Prime Minister is a good man who wants to do the right thing for the UK and Grimsby.
“We need to focus on where we’re going – not having the national media fixated on today.
“However, as a manager and a leader myself, I can say we need to see the report sooner rather than later. If people have intentionally been breaking the rules then there should be disciplinary action.”
If the report finds that Johnson broke rules, it could convince Conservative backbenchers to trigger a leadership contest overthrow him.
Mr Johnson said he hadn’t realised he was at a party and “bitterly regrets” that way that it was handled.
Labour leader Sir Kier Starmer said that Mr Johnson’s denials were “so ridiculous it’s actually offensive” to the public at a heated Prime Minister’s Questions.
New CCTV cameras will be installed north of Lincoln city centre after Lincolnshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner secured an additional £50,000 of funding.
The original £400,000 scheme came after a successful bid by Lincolnshire’s PCC Marc Jones. This involved broadening the CCTV coverage to include the main walking routes out of Lincoln city centre and in three areas.
The funding will extend the new Safer Streets CCTV and will allow for the creation of 360 coverage out of the city centre. It will now allow the cameras to monitor walking routes to and from Bishop Grosseteste University.
The money for the plan – developed in partnership with the City of Lincoln Council – comes from the government’s Safer Streets Fund.
The scheme also includes funding to develop teaching materials which promote women’s rights and challenge attitudes; a Night Safety Charter pledging to design public spaces to make them safe at night; and training for bar, hotel and restaurant staff regarding vulnerability and tackling predators.
All elements of the plan will be co-developed with women and girls and experts in the field.
Lincolnshire Police and Crime Commissioner Marc Jones. | Photo: Daniel Jaines
The Lincoln-based bid is the third successful Safer Streets bid for Lincolnshire. So far the PCC has brought £500.000 in additional funding to the county for projects in the north and east coast.
“I am delighted to be able to secure additional funding to extend the CCTV cameras even further,” said Mr Jones.
“The project was already going to make a significant difference in helping residents feel and be safe and the extra money will ensure that security is extended to even more people.
“It is excellent news and another step forward in protecting our communities.”
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