THE attack on pizza boss Adrian English was branded "as terrible a crime as can be imagined".

Jailing Phillip Hurley and David McLellan for a total of 39 years, Judge Michael Coombe said: "A man's face was rendered a mass of blood. There were numerous fractures and his eyes were ruined for life."

At 12.30am on February 8 last year, Natasha Banks called police to say her boyfriend, Mr English, had been kidnapped outside their home in Montgomery Street, Hove, and driven off in his car.

She suspected a link with his work as manager of Perfect Pizza in Church Road, Hove. He had the keys to the shop's front door and safe in his pocket.

Staggering

PC Richard Jarvis and PC Johanna Nutter, who were in a marked patrol car, searched freezing Devil's Dyke and found Mr English near Poor Man's car park, staggering around with horrific facial injuries.

Every bone in his face had been broken and he needed emergency surgery.

Miss Banks told detectives she saw two men seconds before the kidnapping, including David McLellan who used to work in the shop with her and Mr English.

At 4.25am, detectives took her to the shop and found the door locked but the safe open and £600 missing.

Forensic experts were brought in as detectives expected the case to turn into a murder inquiry.

Police, who had been keeping watch on McLellan's house in Moulsecoomb, obtained a search warrant.

McLellan calmly let detectives into his house and told them he had been at Hurley's house all the previous evening. McLellan's sister, Michelle Williams, was engaged to Hurley.

McLellan said he had been watching MTV at Hurley's home while Miss Williams and McLellan's girlfriend, Heidi Turner, were out at pubs and clubs.

Detectives quizzed Hurley, who gave the same account and told them to search his house. At that stage, they were satisfied Hurley was not involved, but arrested McLellan.

While he was being taken to Hove police station, detectives watched a CCTV tape which showed Hurley and McLellan entering Perfect Pizza without having to break in.

As a result, Hurley was arrested at Hove police station after arriving to see McLellan. Both were interviewed and repeated their previous stories.

In the early hours of the following morning, police in a patrol car found Mr English's car in Goldstone Crescent, Hove.

Shirley Phillips, a work colleague of Hurley, had been driving a bus which picked Hurley and McLellan up from Widdicombe Way at about 10.45pm on the night of the attack, contradicting their story.

Detectives also traced taxi driver Michael Dowd, who had taken McLellan and Hurley from the Southern Streamline office near Perfect Pizza back to Widdicombe Way at 1am.

In an identity parade, Miss Banks picked out McLellan as one of the men she had seen a few seconds before the kidnapping. The taxi driver picked out Hurley and the taxi controller identified McLellan.

Hurley and McLellan were charged with attempted murder, kidnapping, robbery and taking a motor vehicle.

The suspects' clothes and Mr English's car were examined and a balaclava and handcuffs were found during a search of Hove Park.

Horrific

Blood was found on clothes belonging to Hurley and McLellan, and on the outside of the car. The chance of it having come from anyone but Mr English was one in 7.8 million, and one of his hairs was found on the balaclava.

Det Sgt Graham Bartlett, who led the investigation, said: "I'm delighted with the sentences.

"No one will ever know exactly what went on up there or why the attack was so frenzied. It would appear that there was a desire to stop Mr English from recognising McLellan or even Hurley.

"I've been a policeman for 16 years and in CID since 1990. In all that time, this is certainly the most horrific assault where the victim has had to live with the consequences."

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