Gang jailed for torturing father to death in cellar over £300 debt

Adam Clapham died after he was subjected to sadistic abuse in a basement in Rotherham

Adam Clapham died after being tied to a chair and tortured for five hours in a cellar in Rotherham, South Yorkshire (PA)

The ringleader of a gang who tortured and murdered a father of one has been told he must serve at least 39 years in prison by a judge who said the suffering inflicted “is difficult to imagine”.

Arbab Yusuf was one of five people jailed for life on Monday for murdering addict Adam Clapham in the “dark and dingy” basement of a house in Rotherham, South Yorkshire.

A trial earlier this year heard that Mr Clapham was tied to a chair and tortured for five hours, including being beaten with a hammer, hit with bottles and having boiling water poured over him.

The 31-year-old was held captive along with another man in the early hours of 18 September 2022 after the pair were blamed for £300 of drugs money going missing from the address, which was used for dealing.

Sheffield Crown Court heard that a pathologist found 214 areas of injury on Mr Clapham’s body, including 52 on his head.

Both of the captive men were filmed as they were forced to give each other oral sex and their attackers mocked them.

The suffering inflicted on [Adam Clapham] is difficult to imagine

Mr Justice Dove, Sheffield Crown Court

The judge, Mr Justice Dove, said the horrific incident illustrated the “appalling consequences of the drugs trade in our communities”.

At the end of a lengthy trial in June, Yusuf, 24, of Lord Street, Rotherham; Muhammad Ashraf, 18, of Fraser Road, Rotherham; Kieron Millar, 30, of Mount Pleasant Road, Rotherham; Robert Crookes, 31, of no fixed address; and a 17-year-old boy, who cannot be named, were all found guilty of murder.

Guilty: (clockwise, from top left) Muhammad Ashraf, Arbab Yusuf, Kieron Millar, Lynette Myers and Robert Crookes (PA)

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.

On Monday, all five of the defendants convicted of murder were jailed for life, with Yusuf given a 39-year minimum term, Crookes a minimum of 37 years, Millar a 30-year minimum, Ashraf a minimum of 28 years, and the 17-year-old a 21-year minimum.

The judge told the teenager he was sure he had been groomed for a life as a drug dealer.

Myers was jailed for 12 years.

The judge highlighted the “sadistic element” of the incident, saying it was a “relentless, sadistic attack”.

He said: “The suffering inflicted on [Mr Clapham] is difficult to imagine.”

Earlier, Mr Clapham’s mother, Carol Clapham, read an impact statement to the packed court, saying: “The circumstances of his death gives me nightmares and will forever by imprinted in my thoughts.

“No one deserves what happened to Adam.”

Mrs Clapham added: “Adam was a kind, gentle man and would not harm anyone.”

She said her son will never get to see his seven-year-old daughter grow up.

A statement was also read from the man who survived the incident in what he described as the “dark and dingy” cellar.

He said: “What happened to me was horrific but what happened to Adam was far worse.

“The abuse was horrific and I have been left with physical and mental scars.

“We did not know what they were going to do next.”

He added that he was “tortured and humiliated” and they “left me for dead in that cellar”.