Five in court over kidnapped boy

The boy was freed from a flat in Great Peter Street

Four men and a woman have been remanded in custody, charged with kidnapping a 10-year-old boy.

The boy was freed from a flat in central London on Friday after going missing from his home 35 hours earlier.

Dawn Fields and Jeriah Simpson of Navy Street, Clapham, are accused of kidnap, false imprisonment and blackmail.

Damien Francis, Gadwell Gibbs and Edwin Phillips, all from New York, faced the same charges at Horseferry Road Magistrates' Court.

Mr Francis, 24, Mr Gibbs, 23, and Mr Phillips, 21, are also charged with aggravated burglary and a firearms offence.

The boy was found at the flat in Great Peter Street, Westminster, after disappearing from his home in Walthamstow, east London, on Thursday.

All five will appear at Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court on 6 March.