A young member of a gang who imprisoned four urban explorers and assaulted them with weapons at a remote north Cumbria building has been sentenced by a district judge.
Carlisle’s Rickergate court heard today how attackers pounced on the explorers as they visited a disused hotel in the Gilsland area in daylight on the evening of July 26 last year and filmed themselves as they meted out shocking violence.
During an ordeal lasting several hours, the four men were detained, beaten with weapons and spat upon having been forced to the ground.
They were frogmarched from one exterior area of the building to another, had phones taken from them and were coerced into giving their personal family details.
Attackers warned the explorers not to call police, saying they had placed drugs in their car, which had the windscreen smashed before the ordeal ended when darkness had fallen.
One man later described feeling vulnerable and scared as he was struck several times to his legs, of receiving hospital treatment and suffering ongoing pain.
“I started to believe I was going to be killed,” he stated.
Prosecutor Diane Jackson told the court: “He feared he would never see his children again.”
Three of the men had since spoken about living in a constant state of fear after their ordeal, describing the immense impact on their lives and believing the attackers might track them down.
The fourth man was so scared he had never given a formal statement to police.
His friends had to relive the incident while giving evidence at a Carlisle Youth Court trial before one gang member — Hussain Ali, then aged 17 and now 18 — admitted four charges of false imprisonment.
“I remember being genuinely terrified for my life,” another explorer had said in an impact statement. “It was the scariest thing I have ever experienced.”
The court heard Hussain was one of those who committed exceptionally serious acts as the explorers were repeatedly beaten with weapons and degraded.
A defence solicitor said he had been one of several people tasked with protecting the disused building for a boss man.
“It must have been terrifying for each of them,” district judge Philip Holden said of the victims as he passed sentence on Hussain.
The judge noted the teen had spent the last five months in youth custody on remand.
In view of that fact, and taking into account the contents of a detailed pre-sentence background report, Hussain’s young age, childhood trauma, lack of maturity and the positive way he had engaged while in detention, the judge stepped back from imposing a custodial sentence.
Hussain, of Dunworth Street, Manchester, was instead made subject to an intensive 12-month referral order and three-month night time curfew which, stressed the judge, was not a soft option.
It was designed, he said, not only to punish Hussain but also to address his attitude to offending, rehabilitate and offer help from professionals for the longer term.
“This is an opportunity for you,” said the judge, “to not come back to custody and not get into further trouble.”
No one else has yet been arrested or charged following the incident.
