A kidnapped boy scratched his initials on the wall of a bunker where he was locked up for five days, a court heard yesterday.
Sixteen-year-old Charles Doherty, a member of the travelling community, was released after his family handed over a ransom demand of £100,000 stg, a lawyer told the High Court in Belfast.
Mr Desmond Marrinan Barrister, said the boy was taken at gunpoint from his home at Mallusk, Co Antrim, last May and was held captive in a house at Downpatrick, Co Down.
The occupant, Mr Gerard Maguire (43), from Donard View, Ballyhornan, applied for bail on charges of kidnapping, blackmail and false imprisonment.
Mr Marrinan said police searched Mr Maguire's home and found keys which matched the padlocks securing the doors of the bunker where the boy was being held and also the mobile phone number of the boy's granny to whom the ransom demand was made.
He said Mr Maguire told police he had kept the boy for only a few hours at the request of an unknown masked man who called at his home.
"That is unbelievable," said Mr Marrinan in opposing bail.
He said the Doherty family was subsequently threatened and had fled Northern Ireland in fear of the people behind the kidnapping.
"The release of the applicant might obstruct justice as police are still seeking the ransom money and others involved in this large scale criminal enterprise," he added.
The bail application was adjourned to enable defence lawyers to obtain Mr Maguire's medical records.