Tianfu Guo convicted and sentenced for his role in the kidnapping of a wealthy businessman from a golf course in Welwyn Garden City – Russell Pyne led Laura Hollingbery for the Crown
Tianfu Guo was jailed for 12 years at St Albans Crown Court on 29th April 2024.
Earlier this month, Russell Pyne, leading Laura Hollingbery, successfully secured convictions for Conspiracy to Kidnap and Conspiracy to Blackmail.
On the afternoon of Tuesday 24th October 2023, the victim was playing golf with three female associates at Brocket Hall Golf Club when he was approached on the course by a group of males who pepper-sprayed the women and then bundled him into the back of an Audi Q7 before making off at speed.
He was then held captive in a small cage within an AirBnb rented by the captors in Thursley, Surrey.
During the course of his ordeal, he was repeatedly assaulted and his captors made ransom demands of 15 million dollars to be paid in bitcoin.
Tianfu Guo, 35, was arrested near to China Town in London the following evening, his vehicle having been traced by police after it was captured on ANPR cameras travelling in convoy with the Audi Q7. An SD card was recovered from his vehicle that contained surveillance video footage of the victim, along with a monoscope that Mr Guo insisted he had used to look at “squirrels” during the course of the trial.
The victim was eventually released shortly after Mr Guo’s arrest and detention.
