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Friday, 17 May, 2002, 15:25 GMT 16:25 UK
Yardies convicted in torture case
![]() Lambie and Bourne tortured two men for money and drugs
Two notorious Yardie gang leaders are facing long jail terms after being found guilty of kidnap and blackmail in a vicious extortion attempt.
One of them was Mark Lambie, who was cleared of murdering PC Keith Blakelock during the Broadwater Farm riots in Tottenham, north London, in 1985. He and co-accused Anthony Bourne were convicted at the Old Bailey of kidnapping two men from the Tottenham estate and torturing them with a hammer, an electric iron and boiling water poured on their genitals.
A fifth man, Clint Ponton, 19, was cleared of all charges and freed. Scotland Yard's Detective Inspector Peter Lansdown, who led the investigation, said the conviction was a major success in the battle against so-called black-on-black crime. "All the defendants are very dangerous men who have had a malign and corrosive effects in communities across London," he said. Lambie was so notorious that he had become known as "obeah man" or "devil man", with people believing he was magically untouchable. "Lambie's sentence today has destroyed the myth of his invincibility," said Mr Lansdown. "I hope it will encourage others who have been victims to come forward and give evidence." Ran barefoot Lambie and Bourne both headed London crime gangs, called Tottenham Man Dem (TMD) and The Firm respectively. The court heard they teamed up to target two men, Gregory Smith and Twaine Morris, believing they had access to money and drugs.
Mr Smith managed to escape after leading gang members to a barber's which they robbed. He ran barefoot through the streets to Tottenham police station. Mr Morris was being moved to another address when he saw a passing police patrol car and threw himself onto the bonnet. The men were put into police protection, but after 24 hours Mr Morris left. As a warning he was shot in the street - but he survived and named Bourne as the man who had pulled the trigger. 'Wheeler dealer' In court, Lambie's counsel Stephen Kamlish claimed he had been persecuted by police ever since the death of PC Blakelock, who was hacked to death by a mob in the riots there in 1985.
Lambie of Streatham, south London, was found guilty of two charges of kidnap and two of blackmail and cleared of two further blackmail charges. Bourne, of Tottenham, was found guilty of two charges of kidnap and two of blackmail and cleared of attempted murder.
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