Five guilty of ‘utterly horrific’ torture and murder of man in cellar over £300 debt

Adam Clapham, 31, was tied to a chair and tortured for five hours in a Rotherham basement

Adam Clapham (South Yorkshire Police handout)

Five people have been found guilty of murdering an addict who was tortured while imprisoned in a cellar after he was accused of stealing £300 of drugs money.

Adam Clapham, 31, was tied to a chair and tortured for five hours in a Rotherham basement, including being beaten with a hammer, hit with bottles and having boiling water poured over him, jurors at Sheffield Crown Court heard.

Prosecutors said the “level and extent of the violence inflicted was utterly horrific”.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) confirmed that a jury found five defendants guilty of murder and other violent offences on Monday.

Jurors heard how Mr Clapham and another man were imprisoned after they were blamed for £300 of drugs money going missing from the address in Rotherham, which was used for dealing.

Both men were filmed as they were forced to give each other oral sex.

Describing the more than 200 injuries found on Mr Clapham’s body, caused by weapons which could have included a hammer and broken glass, prosecutors said a drug dealing organisation was sending out a message “that they should not be crossed”.

Opening the case for the prosecution in April, Mark McKone KC told jurors the two men were imprisoned and attacked in the early hours of September 18, 2022.

Mr Clapham’s body was found by police a day later, naked in a sleeping bag in the dining room of the house where he died.

Mr McKone said a pathologist found 214 areas of injury on Mr Clapham’s body, including 52 on his head.

The jury was played two short clips taken on a mobile phone of the two men being forced to have oral sex with each other.

Muhammad Ashraf, 18, of Fraser Road, Rotherham; Arbab Yusuf, 24, of Lord Street, Rotherham; Kieron Millar, 30, of Mount Pleasant Road, Rotherham; Robert Crookes, 31, of no fixed abode; and a 17-year-old boy who cannot be named were all found guilty of murder on Monday afternoon, the CPS confirmed.

Ashraf, Yusuf, Crookes and the 17-year-old were also found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm with intent, false imprisonment and rape.

Millar and a sixth defendant, Lynette Myers, 39, of Hounsfield Crescent, Rotherham, were found guilty of grievous bodily harm with intent and false imprisonment.

A seventh defendant – Martin Shaw, 44, of Norfolk Court, Rotherham – was cleared of one count of assisting offenders.

Claire Macdonald, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “This case involves very serious violence and humiliation being used towards these two men. The prosecution say they were both tortured.

“The level and extent of the violence inflicted was utterly horrific. One of the victims did not survive, and the second was badly injured.

“The motive for the attack appeared to be a £300 drug debt.

“It is absolutely tragic that one man has lost his life and another suffered appalling injuries as a result of the brutal vengeance inflicted by this gang.

“They are now facing considerable prison sentences. Our thoughts remain with the families of both victims.”

The convicted defendants will be sentenced on July 24 at Sheffield Crown Court.