A former British soldier has been sentenced to 14 years in jail for his part in the kidnapping of a French Riviera hotel heiress. reports The Guardian.
Philip Dutton was one of 13 men involved in the plot in which Jacqueline Veyrac was snatched off the street outside her home and held in a van for 48 hours.
Giuseppe Serena, 67, an Italian restaurant manager who masterminded the abduction, was sentenced to 18 years.
Veyrac, 80, the owner of the five-star Grand Hotel at Cannes, had been shopping and was returning home when masked kidnappers pounced on her and dragged her into a van in October 2016. She was found two days later, having been gagged, bound by her hands and feet, and held in the back of the Renault Kangoo where she was slept on a filthy mattress.
Having refused to swallow a sedative the kidnappers gave her, and after trying to escape several times, she was rescued after kicking the inside of the vehicle and alerting a passerby.