The group has been jailed for a total of 50 years.
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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Prime Minister Boris Johnson has told the nation that “we cannot delude ourselves COVID has gone away,” as scientists predicted another wave of coronavirus “at some stage”.
Mr Johnson said there was “nothing in the data” to suggest the government would have to deviate from its roadmap of relaxing restrictions in the next few weeks, and praised the rollout of the coronavirus vaccine so far.
He told a press conference on Tuesday: “The majority of scientific opinion in this country is still firmly of the view that there will be another wave of COVID at some stage this year. And so we must, as far as possible, learn to live with this disease as we live with other diseases.”
He indicated this could include bolstering defences with booster jabs.
He also announced the launch of a new Antivirals Taskforce which would be searching for “the most promising new medicines” and supporting their development.
The aim is to ensure any new treatments will be ready as early as Autumn.
“This means, for example, that if you test positive, there might be a tablet you could take at home to stop the virus in its tracks, and significantly reduce the chance of infection turning into more severe disease,” he said.
“By focusing on these new antivirals, we hope to lengthen the UK’s lead in medicines and in life sciences, and to give ever greater confidence to the people of this country that we continue on our path towards freedom.”
He said the recent reopening of pubs and hairdressers had been a “big step” and “has brought the first glimmerings of a return to normality”.
“Science is helping us to get back towards normality and I believe that antiviral treatments can play an important part. […] keep each other safe and see through our roadmap to reclaim our lives in full.”
Get ready for a week of thrilling rides and games when Lincoln’s funfair returns to the South Common for a COVID-19 secure event next month.
The bi-annual event was due to take place in September last year, but was shut down by City of Lincoln Council due to a rise in the number of local coronavirus cases at the time.
Organisers said Lincoln Fun Fair will be able to make a comeback between Friday, May 14 and Saturday, May 22 now that coronavirus lockdown restrictions are starting to be eased more across the country.
The fair will be open between 6pm and 10pm on weekdays and 2pm-10pm on Saturday, but it will be closed on Sunday.
Entry is priced at £1 and there is free parking on site.
As well as family favourites such as the Twister, Waltzer and Dodgems, The Bomber will return along with the Matterhorn and Miami rides.
The Bomber has rotating cars upside down that people are strapped into and it spins round at great speed, taking you around 120 feet up in the air.
In addition to the adult and children’s rides, there will be games stalls and refreshments, including traditional fairground favourites such as hot dogs, burgers and candy floss, as well as dirty fries, ice cream and sweets.
The fair is run under the banner box the Showman’s Guild and one of the organisers Ashley Wood told The Lincolnite: “We are looking forward to coming back again.
“We have historical ties with the city of Lincoln. My family have run rides and stalls on the South Common for generations, including my great grandfather at the cattle market on Monks Road where the fair was originally.”
Dozens of people in the Sikh community received their coronavirus vaccinations at the temple known as Guru Nanak Gurudwara in Scunthorpe on Sunday.
The temple is open for socially distanced prayers, but now also has a pop-up clinic, which community leaders say embodies Sikhism’s key principles of equality and service to humanity.
This comes at a time when celebrations are restricted for Vaisakhi, which is a historical and religious festival.
There have been some fears about the vaccine take up among certain ethnic minority groups, but community efforts like this can make a big difference.
Dr Satpal Shekhawat told BBC Look North: “COVID does not discriminate and we won’t overcome this illness until we all get vaccinated, until we all work together, so we want to bring forward the communities which have not had the highest vaccination levels and that’s why this is an important step for us.”