The fifth member of a blackmail gang is awaiting sentence after being found guilty at Oxford Crown Court.

Mark Dawes, 24, was convicted at a re-trial on Friday after a previous jury failed to agree on a verdict.

With four accomplices, Dawes, who was staying in Shepherds Hill, Greater Leys, Oxford, demanded money from the sister and brother-in-law of Faisal Idris, of Spencer Close, Oxford.

On May 25 last year, Mr Idris was abducted, beaten, stabbed, and threatened with death over a £150 debt he allegedly owed to Dawes' friend Anthony Campbell, 34, of Gordon Avenue, Stafford.

Mr Idris, who admitted taking crack cocaine that day, told the court he was bundled into a car in Moorhen Walk, Greater Leys, and driven to a first floor flat in Shepherds Hill, where he was held captive, and attacked.

The court heard that several phone calls were made to Mr Idris' relatives demanding £5,000.

Threats were made that his fingers would be chopped off and he would be killed.

But police were tipped off, and were waiting when Mr Idris was taken to Tesco, at Cowley Retail Park, to be exchanged for the money.

Dawes claimed mistaken identity and said he had nothing to do with the plot. The court was told he had recently arrived from Jamaica, to visit an uncle in UK.

He will be sentenced next month along with Campbell, who was convicted at an earlier trial of kidnapping and blackmail, and Wayne Giles, 22, of Stowford Road, Barton; Sarah Rees, 20, of Shepherds Hill, Oxford, and Melanie Thurgood, 19, of Columbine Gardens, Oxford.

All had pleaded guilty to blackmail.