Father and two sons beat teenager unconscious in attack

Gulstan Qayum, 49, Aadam Qayum, 25, and Harris Qayum, 23, dragged the youth from an address in Bradford and bundled him into a car on August 15 last year.

He was beaten in the car before being thrown out where he was kicked, punched, and stamped on. He was then put back into the car and driven to woodland where he was dumped.

When he came round he was disorientated, bloodied, and in pain.

The teenager went towards the light of houses and managed to flag down a car. The driver took him to a friend’s house from where he was taken to hospital suffering from a fractured skull and cheekbone as well as numerous other injuries to his back, neck, chest, and legs.

Sentencing the trio at Bradford Crown Court Her Honour Judge Kirstie Watson said: “It was clear from the account that [the victim] gave to the police … how utterly terrifying this incident was.

The case was heard at Bradford Crown Court (Image: Newsquest)

“It was a prolonged and persistent assault borne out of what you considered to be revenge.”

Footage from CCTV cameras showed all three men at the address, with Aadam Qayum arriving after his father and brother.

After knocking aggressively they got inside the property and following a search found the youth hiding in a wardrobe where he had texted friends asking for help.

He was dragged through the flat and outside by his hair, where he was stamped on, kicked in the head, and forced into the back of Gulstan Qayum’s car.

The victim later told police that he saw Gulstan Qayum driving the car with one hand on the steering wheel. The other held a black-handled knife.

Mr O’Sullivan said: “[The victim] described in his video interview thinking he was going to die when he saw this.”

The passenger in the back of the car had his knee on the back of the victim’s head. Both men covered his eyes and hit him in the back of his head.

At one point in the journey, the car stopped. The youth was pulled out and thrown onto a bench where he was punched, kicked, and stamped on. At this point he could barely breathe as his throat was “clogging up”.

He was thrown back in the car and beaten again at which point he blacked out.

He was then dumped in a wooded area by a lake. He awoke to find himself in darkness with his jeans halfway down his legs and his boxer shorts ripped. His bag containing his mobile phone was missing.

He told police: “I thought that was the end of it. I thought that’s where I was finished.”

In interviews with police, all three men chose not to answer questions. They all later pleaded guilty to kidnapping and wounding with intent.

Mr O’Sullivan said there had been a significant degree of planning and pre-meditation around the attack, which involved “an element of revenge” and the “gratuitous degradation” of the victim.

Mitigating for Gulstan Qayum, Andrew Stranex said he fully accepted his role in the “unfortunate and unpleasant” offence and that his actions “went beyond what was reasonable”.

Mitigating for Harris Qayum, Fuad Arshad said he fully accepted that his actions, which were out of character, were without any justification.

Mitigating for Aadam Qayum, Andrea Parnham said he had “made the wrong decision to go along with his father” when asked to go to the house and was “very sorry for the harm he caused”.

Judge Watson sentenced Gulstan Qayum, of Thornbury, to seven years and six months for wounding plus four years for kidnapping, to run concurrently. She told him he was the leader in the attack, exercising power over his sons and encouraging them.

Both Harris Qayum, of Eccleshill, and Aadam Qayum, Barkerend, were sentenced to five years and nine months for wounding, and two-and-a-half years for kidnapping, to run concurrently.

She said: “One can only imagine how terrified this [victim] was to be dragged out of the apartment by three grown men.

“He thought he was going to die.”

She imposed an indefinite restraining order on all three men banning any contact with the victim.