Eight men have been jailed for a minimum of 229 years after they kidnapped and murdered an innocent dad who they wrongly believed had raped a teenager. Erland Spahiu, 34, Curtis Balbas, 31, Martin Smith, 34, Razgar Khader Mohammed, 41, Alan Jaf, 52, Khalil Awla, 49, Dean Smeaton O’Neill-Davey, 30, Erion Voja, 21, were part of a gang that brutally slayed Christopher Hughes, 37.
He suffered more than 90 sharp force injuries to his head, neck, body and limbs, with the most inflicted while he was alive, following his abduction on February 18 last year. Liverpool Crown Court heard his attackers, without justification, had launched the vicious attack on Christopher in retribution for a sexual crime he did not commit.
And his body remained undetected for four days as police conducted a wide-ranging search for him as a high-risk missing. It was only discovered on February 22 by a member of the public with their dog on White Moss Road South in Skelmersdale, Lancashire.
Today the men, who were all related or knew each other, were handed minimum-term life sentences ranging from 23 to 35 for their part in Christopher’s kidnap and killing. A ninth man, Andrius Uzkuraitis, 27, was convicted of assisting an offender and jailed for six years.
After the sentencing, Detective Inspector Heidi Cullum, from Greater Manchester Police, said: “These men took the law into their own hands and murdered Christopher Hughes. What they did in February last year was nothing short of atrocious.
"The work of the Major Incident Team and specialist units within GMP, along with the Crown Prosecution Service in bringing these individuals to justice, has been meticulous. We only hope the verdict and sentences brings some justice and comfort to his family and friends.”
The series of events began on the evening before Christopher's murder when the guilty men came to the conclusion that he had committed a sexual offence. However, the DNA evidence submitted in that particular investigation did not match Christopher's. He was innocent, and this was a false allegation.
The gang searched parts of Wigan, Lancashire, for hours on the evening of February 17 last year and attended at his home where they made an unlawful entry. The hunt continued the following day until Christopher was abducted in broad daylight and was forced into the boot of a car and driven at speed to Skelmersdale.
It was in the vicinity of White Moss Road South, Manchester, that Christopher was brutally attacked and killed in an act of retribution. Later that evening the group reconvened and put a plan in place to hide Christopher’s body, with a number forming a burial party.
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But they were disturbed by police presence in the area on unrelated matters and abandoned their plans. And Christopher’s body remained undiscovered for several days in snowy, wet weather.
But the guilty men continued to cover their tracks by destroying CCTV, changing telephones, deleting messages and disposing of the Audi used in the kidnap. Hours of CCTV footage were recovered and painstakingly reviewed by officers who were able to discover the defendants’ activities.
Christopher's family said he would “live on” in their hearts following the sentencing and thanked the police for bringing his killers to justice.
They said: “We would like to thank sincerely the officers of Greater Manchester Police and the North West Crown Prosecution Service for their hard work on this case over the past number of months. We are pleased that justice has finally been done. It will not bring Christopher back, but he will live on in our hearts forever and the memories of him we will hold dearly.”
