Kidnapped Dales mother tells of gun ordeal (From Craven Herald)

Kidnapped Dales mother tells of gun ordeal

8:40am Saturday 28th November 2009

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A mother who was held hostage with her two-year-old child for 24 hours has spoken exclusively to the Craven Herald about how she feared they would be killed.

The woman – who cannot be identified – was speaking from her home in Skipton a week after Long Preston builder Anthony Peter Scaife, 53, and his 26-year-old son Matthew pleaded guilty to conspiracy to kidnap at Bradford Crown Court.

The eleventh-hour admission of guilt came as some relief to the victim, Jane (not her real name), but she is now hoping both receive hefty sentences.

The mother-of-three met Scaife senior when he spent months renovating her stunning, six-bedroom home, repairing windows and balustrades, but became involved in a dispute with him over his bill.

Jane, 38, says on the night of the kidnap she had gone to bed early feeling “tired and emotional” after spending the day visiting nursing homes to find a sanctuary for her cancer-stricken mother.

“I woke up at about 4am and was lying there half awake, thinking perhaps one of the kids was wandering around,” said Jane. “Then I realised that about three yards from the bed there were two men dressed from head to toe in full para-military gear, with guns.

“I screamed and they shouted in fake Irish accents: ‘Get down on the bed and don’t look at us. If you move or do anything stupid we will kill you.’ The gun muzzle was in my husband’s face.”

Her husband Peter, 41, (again, not his real name), who had also been asleep, said: “They had at least three guns – a handgun and at least two shotguns. For me it was sheer blind panic.”

Jane’s hands and feet were trussed with tight plastic ties and then she was ordered at gunpoint to do the same to her husband. They were then blindfolded and gagged with duct tape.

“The men were agitated but calmly aggressive,” said Jane. “They wanted to give us the impression they knew what they were doing so it would frighten us.

“The leader was arrogant and cocky and kept threatening us. He said he knew he would get 20 years for kidnap and armed robbery and so what was another five years if he killed us.

“I asked what they wanted and they said they would decide when to tell me. Scaife senior was in control and enjoying the power. The other man enjoyed striking military poses and looking threatening. They spoke to each other in fake Irish ascents and referred to each other as Paddy and Murphy, which added to the intimidation.”

The petrified couple were held captive for two hours on the bed while the intruders took it in turns to ransack the house, pulling out drawers and tipping out handbags.

“They asked us how much money we had in the house and how much we had in bank accounts and where the bank cards were. They checked on the computer to see if we did internet banking.”

It was in the midst of this ordeal that the couple’s two-year-old daughter wandered into her parents’ bedroom.

“The men told her to get onto the bed and sit between mummy and daddy. She laid very snuggly between us and all we could do was tell her everything was going to be all right. She was very frightened and will still not sleep without the light on.

“The men managed to find about £1,500 but they wanted tens of thousands. They thought they could just get out £20,000 by taking Peter to the cashpoint. I told them it would take a couple of days to withdraw that type of money but they said it was for me to sort out if I wanted to come out of this alive.

“There was a lot of talk about what they were going to do next and there were lots of taunts and threats to kill us. They were playing with us like a cat and mouse. We did think we were going to die. They wanted us to believe that.”

The kidnappers ordered Jane to get dressed and to find a nappy for her youngest child. “I couldn’t bear them to go in my underwear drawer so I put my jeans on over my nightshirt which I had left on the chair. They made me dress my two-year-old daughter at gunpoint.”

Jane and the toddler were bundled out of the house and Peter was warned that both would be killed if he contacted the police. Jane was told to lie in the back seat of her own car and they drove off, but had a brief stop to talk to some unknown person along the way.

“We doubled back on ourselves and drove around for what seemed like ages. We got to some premises with a shutter door and I was sat on a chair with an old curtain thrown over me and my baby.

“I heard the 7.30am news and the youngest kidnapper then calmly walked into an adjoining office and made himself a hot drink and toast,” said Jane who was still blindfolded.

“My daughter, who never left my arms, said she was frightened and kept asking where she was and for her daddy. I kept telling her she would see her daddy soon and that daddy loves us.

“She kept wanting to be reassured, she was terrified. I tried to make a game out of it saying we were camping.”

Jane said that as the hours wore on her kidnappers were becoming more anxious as they realised chances of obtaining ransom money were becoming more remote. A huge police operation was already unfolding, but the Herald cannot divulge details for operational reasons.

Peter had dialed 999 to report the abduction five minutes after the kidnappers left.

Meanwhile, the kidnappers put more duct tape on Jane’s eyes.

“Eventually my daughter slept for quite a few hours. It was nature’s way of protecting her. I stayed calm throughout and just didn’t get hysterical. I stayed on their right side as I didn’t want to antagonise them.

“I just sat the day out and had a lot of time to reflect and think whether or not I would be killed and how my husband and the kids would cope without me. What would happen to my family?”

Jane says she realised she was being held hostage in a joiner’s workshop and began to wonder if the Scaifes were involved. “At one point he asked if I was cold and it was in a Bradford accent not an Irish accent.

“Then when he escorted me to the toilet, leaving the door open – which was very degrading – he didn’t wear his gloves. Tony Scaife has very distinctive hands with a lot of age spots and I recognised them.”

Jane’s ordeal came to an end when she and her child were dropped at the side of the road near her home and she was then able to remove the duct tape. The house, however, on the instruction of police was deserted.

“Scaife had decided that, out of some sort of honour, he wanted to take me back to the house,” said Jane.

“I shouted, ‘Help, somebody help!’ A neighbour came out and armed police were there within minutes.”

Jane was taken to a safe house and was only allowed to speak briefly to her husband and children before police interviews. Her young son had been admitted to hospital with an anxiety-related asthma attack, but Jane was not allowed to go to his bedside until she had provided a full account of her ordeal.

The family were eventually moved into a hotel until the arrest of the Scaife family in an early-morning raid on their Long Preston home.

“We were easy targets,” said Peter. “Scaife knew the house backwards because he had replaced virtually every window in it. It’s been a living nightmare.”

Jane added: “I don’t think I’ll ever go to bed again safe in the knowledge that we’re secure.”

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