Two men involved in the kidnap and torture of a man at an address in Farnborough this year have been found guilty following a trial at Guildford Crown Court.

Yesterday (December 9), Reece Armstrong, 29, and Tarelle Thompson, 28, were found guilty of kidnap following the six-week trial. Armstrong was also found guilty of Section 18 assault occasioning grievous bodily harm and two counts of possession of an offensive weapon. Thompson was also found guilty of possession of an offensive weapon.

Levi Burton, 30, was also found guilty of sexual assault following the trial. He had already pleaded guilty to kidnap, false imprisonment and assaulting a police officer.

Lorna Swyer, 20, also pleaded guilty to kidnap and common assault, while Sebastian Love, 21, also pleaded guilty to kidnap.

An investigation was launched by the Surrey and Sussex Major Crime Team after officers received a call from a neighbour of the victim, a 38-year-old man, at around 12.20pm on 26 April, 2025.

The neighbour said the victim had been kidnapped by two or three men wearing balaclavas.

He was taken to an address in Reigate, where he was blindfolded and force fed. Two dogs at the property were agitated to cause him fear that they would attack him.

The victim was then taken to a second address in Farnborough where he was beaten, punched and kicked all over his body, burnt, whipped with a cable, stabbed in the foot and forced to smoke a crack pipe.

His wounds were also spray painted to cause him further pain. The victim was also sexually assaulted while at the address in Farnborough.

At around 2.15pm the following day, the victim’s brother told police he had received a call from a man using a ‘no caller ID’, demanding “10 grand and a nine bar”.

The victim’s brother received two further calls from the same number, with the man saying: “How much have you got…you better try harder…you haven’t got long”.

The last two calls made to the victim’s brother were recorded by police using a digital recorder.

At around 4.30pm the same day, officers from Hampshire Constabulary located the victim at the address in Farnborough.

Burton, from Leatherhead, Swyer, from Dorking, Thompson, from Croydon, and Armstrong, from Staines-upon-Thames, were subsequently arrested and charged.

Enquiries were carried out to identify the man making the demand calls from the ‘no caller ID’ and to establish when the phone was last topped up.

It was discovered that someone had purchased a top-up voucher for the phone number from a service station in Eltham. CCTV identified the man buying the voucher as Sebastian Love and he was arrested on 7 May, 2025, in a private hire vehicle.

Two phones were seized from him and a further phone, which was broken, was found under the driver’s seat of the taxi. This phone was confirmed as being the same one used to make the demand calls on 27 April.

Senior Investigating Officer, Detective Chief Inspector Kimball Edey, said: “As soon as we became aware that a kidnap had taken place, my team worked at pace to locate the victim as quickly as possible.

“While we located him the day after he’d been kidnapped, he had still been subjected to what amounted to torture at the hands of Armstrong, Burton, Love, Swyer and Thompson. No one should have to endure the ordeal they had put him through and their convictions, with the remaining two being found guilty today, have ensured they have been brought to justice for their heinous actions.”

Sentencing for all four individuals will take place on Thursday, February 19, 2026, and Friday, February 20, 2026, at Guildford Crown Court.