Three men, including one from Northolt, have been jailed for kidnapping a 36-year-old pregnant woman outside her Enfield home, bundling her into a van and threatening to mutilate her as her terrified partner listened over the phone.
Audi Johnson, 35, of Cranberry Close, Northolt, was among those convicted after a six-week investigation by the Metropolitan Police’s Flying Squad, which traced the vehicle used in the abduction and linked the suspects through DNA, fingerprints and phone data.
Johnson had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to kidnap and was sentenced to five years and four months. Ahmad Ghiasi, 26, of Fourth Avenue, Luton, was sentenced to seven years, and Nicholas Mitchell, 55, of Mannock Close, Barnet, received nine years.
According to police, Johnson, Ghiasi and Mitchell were members of a London-based gang, who had been contracted to carry out the kidnapping.
The victim, who was six months pregnant, had been waiting for a taxi on the morning of 10 May 2024 to attend a personal training session with her mother and sister when she was grabbed from the pavement, forced into the back of a white Ford Transit and bound with cable ties. Her captors interrogated her about her partner, with one telling her: “If you lie to me I’m gonna kick the baby out your stomach.”
They then called her partner, demanding money and jewellery, and threatened to cut off her fingers if he did not comply. Despite being blindfolded and tied at the wrists, the woman managed to escape when left alone in the van, flagging down a cab to reach her mother’s house.
Detective Inspector Ari Yoganathan, who led the investigation, described the attack as “disgusting and terrifying”, adding: “This verdict shows how we are taking the fight to criminal gangs and committed to supporting the local communities they intimidate and threaten.”
In a victim impact statement read in court, the woman said she had been unable to return home since the ordeal and had spent the rest of her pregnancy on her sister’s sofa.
She said: “The incident ruined my life. I will never be the same person again. I am having to start my life all over again. This will always be something that will be part of my pregnancy, which is meant to be a happy experience, and will always be something that is a part of my daughter.”
