Couple imprisoned epileptic man in shed for four months until he starved to death

For four desperate months, Kevin Davies was locked in a garden shed where he was beaten, burned and given potato peelings to eat.

The vulnerable 29-year-old, who had epilepsy and learning difficulties, was let out only to act as a household slave for his captors.



They even recorded a video similar to those used by terrorist kidnappers in which an emaciated Mr Davies was forced to praise his three jailers for looking after him.

The court heard that before the abuse began, Mr Davies had been a long-time friend of landscape gardener Lehane, and helped him with odd jobs.



But Baggus decided that Mr Davies should be punished after she blamed him for crashing her three-wheeled Reliant Robin in May last year.

She and Lehane locked Mr Davies in the shed outside their home in Bream, in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, and started cashing his benefit cheques every week to pay for the damage.



They were sentenced at Bristol Crown Court yesterday for false imprisonment and assault.

David Lehane, 36, and his 26-year-old girlfriend Amanda Baggus were each given ten years while their friend Scott Andrews, 28, was given a nine-year term.

But the three escaped a murder charge because it could not be proved that Mr Davies's epilepsy did not contribute to his death.