Vigilantes found guilty of assaulting thief
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Four Bunbury hotel workers have been convicted of holding a 16-year-old boy captive, while he was tortured in an act of 'vigilante' style revenge.
The Bunbury District Court heard the boy was punched, threatened with a gun and had his finger hit with a hammer after he had been caught trying to steal alcohol from the Lord Forrest Hotel last year.
Last night the jury found hotel worker Michael Desmond Stewart guilty of deprivation of liberty, going armed with a gun to cause fear and assault occasioning bodily harm.
The jury acquitted Stewart's co-worker Barry Leonard Cailes of similar charges.
The hotel's managers, David Beamish and Melissa Abreu, have been given suspended jail terms.
Nicholas Kemp-Downes has pleaded guilty to five charges, including threatening the boy with a gun, and will be sentenced next year.
Stewart will be sentenced next week.
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