Gang beat man and demanded ransom

A kidnap gang abducted an innocent man and made ransom demands to his friends and family before beating him almost to death.

Today, the gang, all from Lithuania, will be locked up after being convicted of abduction and assault while Scotland Yard warned the case marked a disturbing new trend of East European crime.

Estonian Michael Udaltsov, 31, had no links to crime when he was snatched by the gang, beaten and left for dead on Wanstead Flats, east London.

An off-duty police officer walking his dog found him unconscious and so cold his body had gone into spasm. Doctors said he would not have survived another hour in the open.

Udaltsov, a painter and decorator, suffered brain damage from the attack and the Old Bailey heard how he had been "successfully silenced" because, to this day, he could not remember his ordeal.

Detectives said the case marked a new development here, though similar incidents were common in Eastern Europe.

The victim was an innocent stranger to the gang who made more than a dozen ransom demands to his friends and family before attacking him.

Udaltsov's ordeal began on a Friday night in September last year.

In a pub in Stratford, an ex-girlfriend saw him talking to a man who was later identified as the ringleader of the gang.

The next day, the victim's friends and relatives began receiving desperate calls from him pleading for ?200 to a few thousand pounds.

Some alerted police who launched an operation to trace him alive. As the day wore on, Mr Udaltsov's calls became increasingly desperate. One female friend said she heard him speaking with difficulty as if his lips were swollen.

At least two people handed over small sums at meetings in East London. Then, at around 9.15pm, one friend called the gang to arrange a meeting only to be told: "It's too late, the money is no longer needed."

Detectives believe that, by then, the gang had beaten the victim so severely he was expected to die.

He was found at 6am. Emergency brain surgery was required to save him.

Detective Inspector John Kielty, of Scotland Yard's Kidnap Unit, said: "This was a horrific case because of the extent of the victim's injuries. Clearly they wanted him dead for reasons of identification or just mindless violence.

"This type of kidnap, where the victim is completely innocent and where demands are made to friends and family, is common in Lithuania and Eastern Europe. We had tremendous cooperation from the people who received ransom demands; nearly all of whom were Lithuanian or Estonian."

The Kidnap Unit says it is the closest it has come to losing a victim.

Nobertas Bajorunas, 24, of Forest Gate, Aurimas Pavilonis, 22, of Canning Town, Laimonas Grabauskas, 23, and Ramunas Juras, 24, of Walthamstow, Arunas Baciunas, 40, of Forest Gate and Evaldas Storozenko, 24, of Dagenham were all cleared of attempted murder but convicted of conspiring to commit GBH, blackmail and false imprisonment. They will be sentenced today.

Detectives suspect they have committed further offences in Lithuania.

Ironically, Mr Udaltsov is now facing deportation to Estonia, while the gang is expected to be allowed to stay upon release as Lithuania is now in the EU.