Two men appeared via videolink at Ballymena Magistrates Court today, Thursday 2 December, charged with the kidnap and attempted murder of a man in the town.
The charges were in connection to an incident were a seriously injured man was found by council workers in a field off the Lisnamurrican Road on 11 October.
David Cherry (39), from Waveney Park in Belfast, and Sean Davies (38), from Queen’s Park were also charged with arson and possession of drugs.
Another two men had been charged with the same offences in court last week in connection with the incident. David Coleman (36), from Fountain Place, and Mark Bradshaw (51), of High Street, both Ballymena, were remanded in custody.
Today the court heard the horrific details of the case.
A police detective told the court that the victim had been asked to go to Coleman’s flat as he had an “outstanding debt”.
The court was told how a knife was heated over the flame of a gas hob before the victim was stabbed in the chest, close to his heart, and sliced across his mouth. He was then forced to strip and use his clothes to clean his blood of the floor of the flat, before being bungled into the boot of a car and was dumped in a field near Broughshane.
Early the next morning, bin men travelling in their bin lorry spotted the seriously injured man as they travelled down the Lisnamurrican Road. It was only due to the height of the lorry that they were able to see the victim.
The court was told that doctors believed the man was “an hour from death from possibly hypothermia or blood loss”.
The victim spent a number of weeks sedated in intensive care, but after a lengthy recovery has now been able to give testimony and details to police officers regarding the horrors of that night.
Cherry and Davies were both remanded into custody with the case adjourned until the 30 December.