Darron Whitehead, leading Clare Rennie, defend only acquittal in Multi-handed Kidnap and Honour Torture

Darron Whitehead and Clare Rennie were instructed by Jonas Roy Bloom to defend SR at trial for the offence of kidnap. 

On 29 December 2025, four masked men carried out surveillance of the victim, whom they perceived had brought dishonour upon their family. They entered the victim’s home address, abducted him by force and drove him to an isolated container unit leased and externally controlled by SR and his cousin. At the unit, the victim was stripped, beaten, filmed and forced to apologise to family elders. He was held captive for nearly 10 hours before managing to escape.

Although SR attended the unit during the ordeal, Darron and Clare established the defence of duress by circumstance. The jury accepted that he had been unaware of the planned kidnap, did not wish to become involved, and was unable to remove himself due to fear of the principal defendants.

SR was unanimously acquitted at Shrewsbury Crown Court in June. The remaining five defendants are due to be sentenced on 22 July. 

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