Alleged Gainsborough drug dealer denies kidnapping man and beating him with rocks

A man has denied kidnapping a 33-year-old drug dealer and beating him with rocks while he was gaffer taped to a tree.

Jim Smith, 25, from Gainsborough, pleaded not guilty to the kidnap, imprisonment and grievous bodily harm of Bryan Page on August 2 last year.

Lincoln Crown Court heard that Page, also from Gainsborough, had been dealing crack cocaine and heroin for Smith for two months before the alleged incidents took place.

Page told the court via video link from an undisclosed location that he had been carrying a quarter ounce of crack cocaine to sell for Smith last July in return for a share of the profits.

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But he then panicked and threw the drugs, which had a street value of £600, in a bush when he saw some police officers. He then fled the scene and planned to return collect them later.

Page said the drugs were missing when he went back to the scene.

He then told the court he was so frightened of how Smith might react that he smashed a glass jar over his own head and told Lincolnshire Police that he had been robbed. He even signed a bogus witness statement identifying a fictitious man wearing a balaclava as the robber.

Page said he did this so Smith would not think he was trying to "skank" him out of the money. And that he had attempted to apply for Jobseeker's Allowance to help pay Smith back the value of the drugs.

The court also heard Page had been staying at his sister's home in Portland Terrace, where Smith appeared on August 1 and demanded money for the drugs.

He took Page to the nearby Murko garage in Bridge Road and paid for him to top up his mobile phone so he could call his brother to borrow the money.

But when that did not work, Smith took Page to a friend's house in Frampton Terrace. Smith then allegedly put his jacket over Page's head and punched and kicked him repeatedly, shouting that he did not believe that he had been robbed.

Smith is then said to have tied Page's hands behind his back with gaffer tape and marched him through the centre of Gainsborough to land behind the traveller site.

Page says he was gaffer-taped to a tree and repeatedly beaten by for hours by Smith, who smashed both his knee and jaw with rocks. He also claimed Smith left the scene of the crime several times to return to the Murko garage and buy alcohol.

He told the court he was able to wriggle free when Smith passed out from alcohol and the exhaustion from beating him. He then managed to flee to a friend's house and sleep, before reporting the ordeal to the police, who arrested Smith.

Michael Cranmer-Brown, prosecuting told the court that a man matching Smith's description had been caught by CCTV cameras leaving and returning to the scene of the crime.

A jacket Smith was seen wearing earlier in the day was also found splattered with Page's blood.

Mr Cranmer-Brown said to the jury: "Some way or another, that jacket was found in the undergrowth where Bryan Page had been tied to a tree.

"How did that jacket come to get there?

"Tests found Bryan Page's DNA on the jacket, which is not surprising if it had been over his head while he was being beaten.

"Smith's seen with Bryan Page and we know they are together. Bryan Page says he's taken to the end of Summergangs Lane. We have seen the CCTV footage of the defendant walking up and down that lane.

"The single question in this case is, 'was it him'?

"Was it him who did this to Bryan Page or was it someone else?"

The trial continues.