A pub manager suspects an inside job after the centrepiece of his Christmas decorations was "kidnapped", writes Ian Townsend.

Stuart and Diane Marshall, of the Railway Hotel, Didcot, received a note from "terrorist" group YSD - Young, Skint and Desperate - who claimed to have captured the snowman.

Stuart said: "At first I was hopping mad that someone could have done such a crass thing as pinch our snowman.

"Then through the door I got a ransom note with a photograph. "A man in a monk's cowl with a screaming skull mask on was holding a pistol to the snowman's head!"

The note said the snowman would be returned unharmed in exchange for five tickets to the pub's Millennium party.

The culprits threatened the snowman with torture if Stuart told the police or failed to come up with the £25-a-head tickets.

The couple, who have been at the pub for eight months, are baffled. Stuart said: "The snowman was inside the pub, so I suspect an inside job somewhere along the line.

"I've tortured the staff but none has admitted anything."

Story date: Friday 17 December

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