Two Belfast men were yesterday jailed for their part in kidnapping dissident republican Bobby Tohill from a city centre bar - despite a letter from the victim being read to a judge asking for the accused to be spared prison sentences.
Lord Justice Girvan told Belfast Crown Court he could not be sure the letter written by Mr Tohill, which described the two accused as the victim's "personal friends", was written of his own free will on a voluntary basis.
Thomas Tolan (35), Ballymurphy Park, and Gerard McCrory (34), Dermott Hill Road, admitted they were part of a four-man gang who dragged Mr Tohill from the Kelly's Cellars pub on February 20th, 2004, and bundled him into a waiting van.
The kidnapping was caught on CCTV and moments after Mr Tohill was forced into the back of the van by the gang dressed in boiler suits, the vehicle was intercepted by police at the Millfield and Divis Street junction.
Mr Tohill emerged from the back of the van battered and bleeding and the court was told that since the incident three years ago, the injured party has not made a complaint to police and has refused to give evidence.
Philip Magee QC, representing McCrory, read a letter written by Mr Tohill to the court. Describing the two men in the dock and their families as "personal friends", Mr Tohill said that as far as he was concerned, the events of February 2004 are "over and done with".
While all four men accused of the kidnapping were on bail awaiting sentence for the offence last year, they went on the run. McCrory and Tolan were arrested last month on the outskirts of Belfast while the remaining pair - 37-year-old Harry Fitzsimons and 33-year-old Liam Rainey - are still at large.
Regarding McCrory and Tolan's refusal to co-operate in preparing pre-sentence reports, the judge said: "The actions of these two defendants shows they have very little or no remorse."
McCrory was given a seven- year jail term for his role in the incident while Tolan, who has a lesser criminal record, was ordered to serve a six-and-a-half- year prison sentence.
As the pair were being led away, friends and relatives in the public gallery gave them a clenched-fist salute.