TWO Blackburn men jailed for abducting two teenage runaways have had convictions quashed at the Court of Appeal.
Carl John Heys, 30, and Kevin John Murtagh, 38, both of Derby Street, were found guilty at Preston Crown Court of three counts of child abduction.
They were jailed in January for three-and-a-half years, but will be freed early after London appeal judges quashed two of the convictions and the 18-month sentences which went with them.
Although the two child abduction convictions were quashed, neither man appealed a third conviction for the offence, leaving two-year sentences intact.
Lord Justice Laws said the jury might have been confused about what they had to decide and returned ‘unsafe’ verdicts.
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