Pair jailed for dog-like torture

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Two bullies who forced a "vulnerable" man to behave like a dog, including repeatedly bark and eat pet food, have been jailed for three years each.

Paul Hassell, 38, was made to lick shoes clean and go "walkies" by crawling to the shops during a two-day ordeal last October.

Anthony Young, 43, and Lloyd Duncan, 45, both from south London, locked him in a kennel sized cupboard at night.

Inner London Crown Court convicted the pair in April for false imprisonment.

The men also burnt the hairs from Mr Hassell's armpits and chest.

Eyebrows shaved

Sentencing the men, who are from Camberwell, recorder Mark Dennis, QC, said: "You inflicted a prolonged period of unlawful detention involving repeated ill-treatment of your victim.

"It was humiliating and at times cruel abuse."

Mr Hassell also endured repeated smacking and kicking and was even threatened with a grave in Epping Forest in east London.

During the trial the court heard the victim's hair and eyebrows were shaved off and when he was a "good boy" he was forced to chew on a washing powder tablet, given as a "treat".

The jury was told his "humiliation and pain" finally ended when he ran off and managed to break into a house with a brick and call the police.

The two men claimed Mr Hassell had invented the entire account.

Soured friendship

He told the court the defendants initially befriended him when he was homeless and "down on his luck" .

But the jury heard the friendship turned sour when he tried to avoid their company, before they spotted him outside a church in Streatham, south London.

Jurors heard that having persuaded Mr Hassell to come back to their flat in Camberwell they effectively turned him into a human dog.

Young was jailed for three years concurrently after admitting two counts of drugs offences, including offering to supply drugs to an undercover officer.