London, June 3 (IANS) A Briton has been sentenced to 16 years in jail for savagely punishing his son whom he suspected of stealing his stepmother's jewellery. He welded the son into a cage and threatened to set him on fire.
Kevin Clifford, 51, also beat Gary, 29, with a baseball bat and garden hose as the latter hung upside down in agony, The Sun reported.
Clifford, an engineer by profession, also took help of his brother Patrick, 44, and friend John Cope, 47, in meting out the brutality his son , the court was told.
The beating -- during which Gary was sprayed in the face with brake fluid -- left him close to death with two broken legs and a broken arm and foot.
Patrick hit his nephew Gary in the face with a hammer. Friend Cope joined them in the beating later and smashed Gary's kneecaps to pieces, Leicester Crown Court heard.
The trio were convicted of grievous bodily harm and false imprisonment. Clifford's brother Patrick received 12 years while friend Cope got 16 years jail term. The torture was inflicted in a workshop at Clifford's home in Moira, Leicester city.
Gary was barely alive when he was dumped in a builder's sack outside a pub near Greasley, Nottinghamshire. He remained hospitalised for four months and still takes painkillers, as he had suffered multiple cuts and bruises and has severe lash marks.
Judge Ebraham Mooncey said: "It was a sustained beating of the most vile kind. It's hard to imagine how a father, his own flesh and blood, could do something like this."
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