A YOUNG woman has vowed not to return to Reading after she was taken hostage on a night out more than three years ago.
The man who held her and her friend hostage, Samuel St Fort, has been jailed for seven years after threatening the girls with a knife and punching one of them with a boxing glove.
After escaping through a bathroom window following an ordeal that lasted ‘several hours’, the woman had to hide under a car to avoid being detected by St Fort, who was 20 at the time of the incident.
In a victim statement, one of the girls said she was scared of returning to Reading following the frightening events.
St Fort’s prison term also stems from the ‘violent’ and ‘sadistic’ ways he treated another woman from August 2020 to April 2021, including whipping her with a charging cable and hitting her with a hammer.
Appearing at Reading Crown Court on Tuesday morning, the 23 year old, of Wensley Road, appeared in the dock in a grey tracksuit and clutching a Bible.
Read the full story in this week's Reading Chronicle, out tomorrow.
Also in this week’s paper:
- A brave man who jumped from the second-floor window of a burning building is recognised for helping to save his neighbours’ lives
- The father of murdered Olly Stephens praised the ‘power’ of the local community as people came together to remember the teenager one year after his tragic death
- The father of a 17-year-old motorcyclist who was left in a coma after a horror crash in Reading last month speaks of his agonising wait
- Plus MORE cute baby photos
- Residents come to the rescue of a ransacked charity shop
- The best way to get rid of your Christmas tree
- And why the oldest marathon runner in Britain had to fake his age to compete in Reading
- AND all the thugs locked up in 2021, four pages of sports coverage and seven pages of puzzles
Plus, in the Woodley and Earley edition, the story of how a baby-faced gang struck fear into the community after launching a series of terrifying knifepoint robberies.
The trio, including a convicted murderer, have been jailed for a combined total of 24 years for their crimes following a court hearing last month.
Read the full story in the Woodley and Earley Chronicle, out tomorrow.
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