Second man involved in kidnapping of three Northampton victims sentenced to 11 years in prison

A second man involved in the kidnap and blackmail of three victims in Northampton has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for a string of crimes including robbery, theft and conspiring to supply Class A drugs.

Brandon Southall, aged 25, previously of Slade Road, Stockland Green, Birmingham, appeared at Northampton Crown Court on Friday, April 14 to be sentenced for theft, robbery, conspiracy to supply Class A drugs, possessing an indecent video of a child, and two counts of kidnap and blackmail.

The court heard that Southall - along with co-defendant Aramis Sullivan, aged 19 - took a terrified 17-year-old boy to a wooded area in Northampton on August 11, 2021 and forced him to call his father to demand money. The victim’s mother, who described her son as “shaking and crying,” handed over £200 and the victim was let go.

Southall and Sullivan, the following day, targeted two 19-year-old men in McDonald’s in The Drapery and forced the teenagers to drive them to Coventry, where the defendants kept them hostage for six hours and demanded £1,000 from their families, threatening to hurt them if they refused.

Sullivan, previously of Gransden Close in Luton, was sentenced to five years and three months in prison on February 14 earlier this year.

The court heard that Southall committed additional offences in Birmingham, where he snatched a woman’s phone in the early hours of March 2019 whilst intoxicated. He was also convicted of being involved in a robbery where a 17-year-old boy had a bike stolen from him by three males at knifepoint on May 25, 2020.

Between July 2020 and November 2020, Southall based himself in Loughborough where he distributed Class A drugs across Birmingham, the court heard. During that period, he targeted vulnerable drug users and cuckooed their homes, forcing entry and refusing to leave as he worked on distributing drugs to at least 146 individuals.

The court heard that Southall would threaten those he cuckooed with violence if they refused to help him in the illegal operation.

Ms Harrison, prosecuting, said that, when Southall was arrested, police uncovered an indecent video of him engaging in sexual activity with a child.

The court heard that, despite the best efforts of Southall’s parents, he had a “disruptive and unhappy” childhood, which led to the man he became but he is “determined to change.”

Southall’s defence barrister said: “As far as offending goes - which he accepts - quite frankly, he has had enough of it. I am sure plenty of others have as well. He is tired of being painted as public enemy number one.”

He added that the supply of drugs was not a one-man job and the victims of the theft, robbery and kidnappings were not physically injured - although he accepts that the psychological effects will be significant.

His Honour Judge Mayo DL, in his sentencing remarks, said: “When I sentenced your co-defendant, I made this point: despite his young age - he was only 19 - he and you, in Northamptonshire, exercised a very frightening degree of control over the two older people that you abducted and took to the West Midlands and, of whom, you stole considerable amounts of money.

“Four people have been underlined as people exploited by you as vulnerable people because they were drug users or because of their age.

“I am of the view that you were very close to the edges of serious organised crime and gang operations.”

Southall was sentenced to 11 years in prison and placed on the Sex Offenders Register for seven years.