Child kidnapped from home in Whitehead

His ordeal began when three men, one carrying a gun, burst into their Cable Road home at breakfast time.

The mother was ordered to take the children upstairs where they were placed in separate bedrooms before one of the boys was taken from the property.

The woman was told not to contact anyone for two hours.

She later told reporters that these were the longest two hours of her life.

A report in the East Antrim Times said that after a wait, she proceeded to telephone her husband, a bank official, who had been unaware of the family’s terrifying experience.

He was then contacted by one of the kidnappers who demanded a ransom of £25,000.

They asked for the cash to be brought to a location in Belfast, at 7.00 pm, that evening.

The boy’s father then received a call to say that the child would be returned to him at a garage at Turf Lodge in the city.

The report went on to say that the youngster had been taken to a destination in Belfast where he had been hooded and held captive for ten hours.