Everything in Hell is rosy

Six members of a gang that kidnapped two men - one of them a friend of the singer Lily Allen - have been jailed for up to 12 years each.

The hostages, aged 18 and 25, were pistol-whipped, made to watch torture DVDs and told they would be shot if relatives did not pay a £90,000 ransom.

Three gang members admitted their roles and three others were found guilty at London's Southwark Crown Court.

Joseph Hadji, 27, of Queen's Park, was jailed for 10 years after admitting kidnap and blackmail charges.

Ashanti Kumpati, 29, of Thamesmead, and Paul Wigan, 29, of Catford, pleaded guilty to blackmail and false imprisonment and were each jailed for nine years.

Three others who denied involvement but were found guilty after a four-week trial, were also jailed.

Thijseen Johns-Elliot, 28, of Sydenham, was jailed for 12 years for blackmail and false imprisonment while Jason Goode, 27, of Hither Green received six years in jail for false imprisonment.

Vergil Percival, 36, of Stoke Newington, was jailed indefinitely for two counts of kidnap and one of blackmail.

Judge John Price said it was a "vile and cruel" crime.

The gang descended on the two men as they closed up a sports shop in west London in August last year, bundled their captives into a car boot and held them with little food and no water for a week.

Armed police eventually rescued the men. Some members of the gang had to be subdued with tasers.

Lily Allen thanked the Metropolitan Police on stage at the GQ Men of the Year show, saying: "My friend was kidnapped a few weeks ago and was kept in a car boot for six days without any food or anything.

"It was really scary. Thank you to the Met for getting my friend back, we were all terrified. From what I hear, the police did a fantastic job."

Police still want to trace five other men who they suspect were involved in the plot.

Thus the BBC keeps us from the horror of having to see their evil faces, completing the work of their masks and caps in the video.They are not alone amongst the mainstream media in their delicate touch and lack of unseemly preaching and political point-scoring.

I was therefore shocked and hurt when the unreliable and biased Daily Express had the poor taste to make us look at the faces of these vile criminals, undoing the State broadcaster's tasteful and diplomatic coverage. The Daily Mail is equally vicious, and I don't see what anyone could hope for in forcing its to readers stare into the face of conscienceless criminals like these.

It was clearly a horrific crime and one that needs to be forgotten as soon as possible before people draw unfortunate conclusions based on anecdotal evidence rather than well-funded professional research.