Five people including money lender Janzib Rigby, 30, and Kimberley Green, 43, were sentenced at Manchester Crown Court for their ‘inhumane’ treatment of a vulnerable woman
A woman endured a horrifying 12-hour nightmare after being kidnapped, Tasered and taken to remote moorland. The victim was held captive in two separate locations, subjected to electric shock treatment and forced to strip, before being driven to the moors where she was threatened with abandonment.
Manchester Crown Court was told how the ‘vulnerable’ 28-year-old drug user became a target for Janzib Rigby, a loan shark who had trapped her with crippling interest rates.
Kimberley Green, working alongside Rigby, deceived the woman into entering her property under false pretences before Rigby appeared, aware she was indebted to him. In desperation, the victim phoned her mother pleading for money to pay her captors and gain freedom, reports the Manchester Evening News.
Her mother had already alerted police, with GMP’s specialist negotiator providing support throughout the harrowing day. The woman was finally released nearly 12 hours after her ordeal began.
Rigby and his accomplices, responsible for her captivity and the ‘inhumane treatment’ she endured, have now been brought to justice.
Rigby, 30, and Green, 43, received prison sentences, whilst three others – Marshall Atkinson, 18, Cody McGiffen, 18, and a 17 year old boy who cannot be identified for legal reasons – were also sentenced. The court heard her terrifying experience began on January 7 last year.
“[The woman] was forced to endure a frightening, humiliating and protracted ordeal in which you each played a material part,” Judge Sarah Johnson told the five defendants.
It was approximately midday when Green spotted the woman on the Holts estate, close to her residence on Victoria Street in Oldham.
She told the woman there was an ‘urgent call’ for her and beckoned her inside from the bitter cold conditions. The woman had no clue it marked the start of a horrific experience that would leave her battling PTSD.
Green alerted Rigby that the woman was at her property. He soon arrived with McGiffen and the 17-year-old, with Atkinson turning up afterwards.
“I cannot be sure each of you knew the extent to which [the woman] was to be detained that day,” the judge remarked.
However, this commenced her period of captivity. Inside the house, the 17-year-old shocked her with a Taser to her body, whilst Atkinson used the weapon on her face, head and torso.
The duo were ‘guided by others’, the judge noted.
Green then escorted the woman upstairs, where she carried out a ‘degrading’ strip search and seized money concealed in her underwear. Meanwhile, Atkinson ‘bragged’ in text messages to others about his actions.
“This was utterly inhumane treatment of a vulnerable member of your community,” the judge declared.
The woman had phoned her mother requesting money to help ensure her freedom. Her mother alerted police, and the force negotiator collaborated with her throughout the day attempting to locate her daughter.
The victim was subsequently transported to a second address on Wildmoor Avenue.
Later, she was taken to Saddleworth Moor, where she was warned she would be abandoned there in the darkness. “This was utter torment for her, and nothing more than sport for you,” Judge Johnston declared.
She was freed after 11pm, following police intervention when they stopped the vehicle she was being transported in as they returned to the property on Wildmoor Avenue.
The victim detailed the devastating consequences of her ordeal in a statement read to the court on her behalf.
She revealed: “I have spent three stints in mental health units since what happened. I suffer from complex PTSD as well as hallucinations and flashbacks.
“I have tried to take my own life on five occasions. I can honestly say this is directly as a result of what happened to me. I think about it every day, every hour, every minute, the fear and humiliation that I suffered.
“I started to self harm. It is the only release I have to take my mind away from what happened.”
Sentencing Rigby to eight years behind bars, the judge condemned him for displaying ‘cold indifference’ towards his victim’s suffering.
Green received a five-year prison term. The 17-year-old was given a youth rehabilitation order, whilst McGiffen received an 18-month community order.
Atkinson’s sentencing was postponed for six months.
Rigby, from Salisbury Street, Shaw, admitted false imprisonment and two counts of kidnap, and was convicted of robbery.
He was cleared of perverting the course of justice and possessing a prohibited weapon. Atkinson, from Wood Crescent, Oldham, admitted to false imprisonment; possessing cannabis; and possessing a prohibited weapon.
He was acquitted of robbery and kidnap charges. Green, residing at Victoria Street, Oldham, was convicted of false imprisonment; robbery and kidnap.
McGiffen, of Fairway Road, Oldham, was found guilty of false imprisonment and kidnap. He confessed to a second count of kidnap; and was cleared of robbery.
The 17-year-old admitted to false imprisonment and possessing a prohibited weapon; and was convicted of kidnap. He was acquitted of robbery; and a second count of kidnap.