Bound ‘naked’ kidnap victim manages to escape from car boot

Emmanuel Chidubem Emmanuel accessed the fuse box to disable the vehicle

Three of the men found guilty of abducting the victim (Police Scotland)

A man who was kidnapped and held captive in the boot of a car managed to escape after he pulled fuses out of the vehicle.

Emmanuel Chidubem Emmanuel, 27, was forced into the back of a BMW X5 by four men in front of passers-by in Edinburgh.

After being driven through the streets, he eventually managed to free his hands from the bindings and stopped the car by accessing a fuse box in the boot.

Four men were convicted of assaulting and abducting Mr Emmanuel at the High Court in Edinburgh.

On 10 February, the victim was punched, kicked and attacked with a weapon, before being stripped of his clothing, wrapped in a bedsheet and tied up at a house in the city.

Mr Emmanuel was also blindfolded and he told the court he believed he was gagged with a sock.

The kidnappers then gained access to his online bank account and took money from it before forcing Mr Emmanuel into the boot of a car.

Once in the vehicle, he managed to remove his hands from the bonds and access the fuse box, disabling the car on Buckstone Road.

The victim managed to stop the car and escape on Buckstone Road in Edinburgh (Google Street View)

He took an object from the boot to use as a weapon and fought the men holding him captive in front of shocked onlookers.

Julie Arbuckle, a 47-year-old witness, told the court she rang the police when she saw the incident taking place.

“They were all kicking and punching him and trying to get him into the car,” she said.

“At one point the naked guy, they had got him in the car but he got out the other door.”

She said Mr Emmanuel’s “whole face was swollen” and he looked “quite injured”.

The attackers fled when Ms Arbuckle shouted that the police were on their way, after which the victim came over to her car and thanked her.

Hooman Sojoodi, 22, Sanchez Facey, 23, Glen Elamo, 20, and Arnold Mukueto, 22, have denied assaulting and abducting Mr Emmanuel, but forensic evidence from fingerprints and DNA linked them to the BMW and the house where the attack began.

The men are due to be sentenced next month.