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Man's ear, fingers and toes chopped off over £10,000
Daily Mail, UKPublished Oct 21 2010
Ross had his ear, two fingers and three toes chopped off over £10,000 debt. Image source: The Sun, UK
A British man had an ear, two fingers and three toes chopped off during an horrific 13-day kidnap ordeal over an alleged drug debt. James Ross, 26, was held captive in a villa on the Algarve by a gang of fellow Britons. His ear was sliced off by his captors as they tortured him over a £10,000 debt. But he managed to escape despite two broken legs and was found bleeding heavily in the street on Monday morning in the village of Alfontes, near Loule.
Passer-by Carlos Pereira said: "He came staggering towards me asking me to stop, waving his arms in the air. "He had no left ear and was missing two fingers on his left hand, one from one foot and two from the other. He also had a leg wound." But Ross told Pereira he had been involved in a road crash. The local man said: "He was very white. He said 'please, please, telephone'.
"I decided to put him in my van and drove him to a square, near a cafe, and called the police." Newspaper Correio da Manha said Ross owed Briton John McLean £10,000 over a cannabis deal. He was lured to the Algarve on October 5 when McLean told him he could pay off his debt working on a cannabis farm. But he was kidnapped soon after landing at Faro airport.
Two days later his concerned wife Donna received a call from the kidnappers. She recognised the voice as Maclean's, Correio da Manha said. His wife was told her husband was being held in a cage in the woods, unconscious and with broken legs, arms, feet, ankles and ribs. The caller said her husband would be executed if she called the police.
