Kidnapped student threatened with death by homeless pair
Vincent Wray and Dean Coulling
Two men who admitted kidnapping, robbing and stabbing an Oxford student were sentenced on Monday to a total of 14 years in prison. The student, whom The Oxford Student has decided not to name, was snatched at knifepoint on Park End Street last October. He was held for over two hours, and was slashed and stabbed in the hand, arm, chest, back, face and leg, requiring hospital treatment.
After handing over cash and credit cards he was bundled into a taxi, before being abandoned some ten miles outside Oxford. Dean Coulling, 21, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to kidnap, robbery and grievous bodily harm on 17th December and was jailed on Monday for six and a half years. Vincent Wray, now 26, also of no fixed abode, whom Judge Julian Hall, presiding, said was “as culpable, even though you did not wield the knife” was jailed for seven and a half years for kidnap and robbery.
Brendan Davis, prosecuting, told the court how the student was drinking inside the Bubbly Bar on Park End Street on the night of Friday 8th October 2004. He was approached by Coulling, who stole his mobile phone and then left the bar. After following Coulling outside, the student encountered Wray. Feeling a knife pressed to the back of his neck, he was told by Coulling: “Keep moving or I’m gonna cut you. I dare you to make a noise; you’ll see what’ll happen to you.
The pair blindfolded the student and then led him across Hythe Bridge Street to the canal. There they demanded “everything” he had. After handing over a £10 note the student tried to escape, but as he attempted to push past Coulling he slipped and fell into the canal. Davis said: “He swam, he did not know for how long or in what direction, but when he got to the bank both defendants were there waiting for him. Mr Wray demanded cards and PIN numbers.
The student was forced to reveal the PIN numbers at knifepoint.” Coulling, who said he was known as “mad dog”, then inflicted a four-inch deep stab wound to the student’s thigh, in order to prevent any further escape attempts. As Wray left with the student’s credit cards and PIN codes, Coulling marched him to a secluded area. There he bit, punched and stabbed the student for around an hour, telling him: “I’ll happily kill you and dump your body in the canal.
I’m already looking at six years, I’ll happily make it nine for you. You’ve never been to prison, have you? You rich bitch, your life is nothing like mine.” Wray then returned in a taxi, whose driver police believe was under the impression that the student owed the pair money for drugs. With his head forced between his legs, the student was driven along the A34, through Cowley.
He eventually escaped from the car at an industrial estate some ten miles outside Oxford, and was picked up by police at around 3.30am. Peter Coombe, for Coulling, said his client recognised he had taken part in a “shocking episode”. He said that at the time of the offences Coulling had recently split from his girlfriend and was depressed.
Citing his “unhappy upbringing” and heroin addiction, Coombe said Coulling: “Doesn’t fully understand how he came to behave like this”, and that “alcohol makes him a different person”. Coulling, who sat in court wearing a black Nike sweatshirt and black trousers, asked for two unrelated charges to be taken into account. The court heard how he had previous convictions for assault and actual bodily harm.
Giving Coulling credit for pleading guilty at the earliest possible opportunity, Judge Hall handed down two sentences of six and a half years for kidnap and robbery, and two and a half years for grievous bodily harm, to run concurrently. Jennifer Edwards, for Wray, told the court how he had been in care since the age of seven and had “no family values on which to base his life”.
“What happened was unforgivable and he knows that,” she said, adding the pair came together “perhaps in a fog of drugs and alcohol”. Wray, who was 25 at the time of the offences, and slouched in the dock in a blue hooded tracksuit, has numerous convictions including attempted armed robbery and criminal damage.
Sentencing him to two concurrent sentences of seven and a half years, for kidnap and robbery, Judge Hall told Wray he was “as culpable [as Coulling], even though you did not wield the knife”. Judge Hall said Wray “must stay in prison longer” because he was older, and did not plead guilty at the earliest possible opportunity. The student has now made a full recovery. Speaking exclusively to The Oxford Student, he said: “I’m satisfied with the sentences. I’m very happy for them to be brought to justice and I did not expect them to be caught. “I’d like to thank the sterling work of Thames Valley Police and my family, friends, college and the University for their support.” Det Con Keith Hutchinson, who investigated the case, said: “We were determined to see the offenders brought to justice for this vicious attack. The sentence sends a clear message that the police and the courts take such crimes extremely seriously."
19th May 2005