Three men jailed for Merthyr Tydfil kidnapping and murder plot

Three men have been jailed for kidnapping and attempting to murder a man from Merthyr Tydfil.

Tyshane Brown, 30, from Weymouth, George Miles-Williams, 23, and Luke Williams, 19, both from Hereford, were sentenced at Newport Crown Court on Friday after being found guilty at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court in August.

Police were called after Connor Price, 28, was forced into a vehicle and stabbed a number of times after refusing to hand over £5,000 to the defendants.

The court was told Luke Williams called the victim and arranged to meet him in the car park of the Cyfarthfa Retail Park on 10 February this year.

The three defendants had driven from Hereford to meet Mr Price at the retail park.

They told him to get in the car where he was told by Tyshane Brown and Luke Williams that they had a knife and a gun.

As the car was driven away, the defendants demanded £5,000 from the victim, and when he said he didn’t have the money, he was stabbed a number of times in the back, the stomach and hand.

Brown made a number of calls to Mr Price’s girlfriend demanding money. She was waiting in his car nearby and could hear her boyfriend being stabbed.

The ordeal, which lasted an hour, eventually ended when the victim’s father and some friends arrived.

The defendants returned to the retail park thinking Mr Price’s family were going to pay.

He was eventually freed when his father rammed the defendants car allowing him to escape.

Police were called after the man turned up at hospital with multiple stab wounds.

The court heard that the defendants escaped initially to Talgarth, Powys, before going to Felindre, Swansea, to dispose of the fake gun, the knives and the clothes they were wearing.

The three men were eventually arrested in Herefordshire.

They were found guilty at a trial in Merthyr Crown Court last month of attempted murder, causing grievous bodily harm, kidnap, blackmail, possession of an imitation firearm, and possession of a bladed article.

Tyshane Brown was sentenced to a total of 30 years in prison, Luke Williams to 25 years in a young offenders institution and George Miles-Williams, who was described as having “a lesser role” in the offences, to 20 years in prison.

They will have to serve two thirds of their sentence before applying to the parole board.

Brown and Williams will also have to serve an extended period on licence, of three and two years respectively, because of what the judge Tracey Lloyd Clarke called a high risk that they could commit further offences.