Kidnap & False Imprisonment Lawyers

To put it simply, kidnapping is the act of taking away another person (the victim) without their consent, either by force or by fraud, when there is no legal excuse for doing so. It is usually done for certain purposes, which may include receiving a ransom or a reward, interfering with a political or governmental function or terrorising or injuring the victim.

False imprisonment, on the other hand, is the act of unlawfully and intentionally restraining one’s freedom of movement from one location. Some general examples of false imprisonment include:

• a person keeping another one locked in a room without their consent
• a person grabbing another person without consent and holding them so that they cannot move or leave
• a store owner or a security guard detaining a person for an unreasonable time period because of their appearance
• an employer detaining someone for an unreasonable time period for questioning purposes in case of suspected theft
• personnel of a nursing home that medicates a patient without their consent, under emotional or physical threat

Here are some examples that might seem like false imprisonment but are actually not:

• someone grabbing your arm, but you have no fear of retaliation because you can free yourself from their grip
• someone closing the front door with you inside and asking you not to leave, but not closing the open side door

Although some people tend to use those two terms interchangeably, mainly because both of them relate to the act of taking one’s freedom without their consent, these are two separate crimes. Here are some examples that can help in understanding the difference between these two offences.

A person is walking down the street. Suddenly, someone runs behind them, grabs them, and throws them in a van parked a few meters away. That’s kidnapping.

Another example. A husband and a wife had an argument. The husband is agitated, and locks the wife in one of the rooms, with no chance to escape. That’s false imprisonment.

Sometimes, one of those offences leads to another. Let’s go back to the first example. If the kidnapper brings the victim to an abandoned building and ties them to a chair, restraining their movement and chances of escape, then not only are they guilty of kidnapping, but also false imprisonment.

Generally speaking, child abduction is a term used to describe the act of unauthorised removal of a child (a person under the age of legal adulthood, in the UK it’s 18) from the custody of their parents or legal guardians.

This offence may be applied in few instances, such as:

• when the victim of kidnapping or false imprisonment is under the age of 16 – for example, when some person not connected to the child at all takes it from school without parents’ knowledge
• when someone connected to the child, for example a parent or a legal guardian, takes them out of the UK without permission from every person with parental responsibility for the child (such as the child other parent or legal guardian)

Both kidnapping and false imprisonment are offences with a maximum sentence of life in prison that are dealt with in Crown Court. If you are found guilty of committing either false imprisonment or kidnapping in the UK, you can face a prison sentence of anywhere between 12 months and 12 years.

However, the length of the sentence will depend on a range of factors, such as:

• the degree of planning the offence involved
• whether violence or restraint were used
• how vulnerable the victim was
• whether weapons were used
• how many offenders participated
• whether any other offences were committed as well

When it comes to child abduction, the case can be dealt with either in the Crown Court or Magistrates’ Court. In the first case, the maximum sentence on conviction is imprisonment for seven years. In the second, the maximum sentence is 6 months of imprisonment.