A MAN who held a knife to a teenager’s face after wrongly believing he had sexually abused a young boy has been jailed for 10 years.

Roy Tanner threatened to cut the 14-year-old’s nose off and also robbed him of a sovereign style ring.

The boy had been forced into a car by Tanner’s female accomplice. The woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, slapped and punched the terrified youth, who suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, while Tanner held him by the throat.

Maidstone Crown Court heard that the couple had wrongly assumed that the boy, who also cannot be named, had molested a younger boy.

But jailing them Judge Adele Williams said the court had a duty to send out “a powerful message” that taking the law into your own hands was “wholly unacceptable”.

She said Tanner and the woman had done just that “on the basis of inadequate information”.

“You were hell-bent on exacting revenge for the perceived offence he had committed,” Judge Williams added. “Neither of you has any degree of insight into these offences or has expressed any remorse.”

She continued: “These offences were violent and your intention was to give this boy a good hiding for what you perceived he had done and to cause him injury and terror. The fact that only minor injury was caused was largely due to his presence of mind."

Tanner, 31, and the 35-year-old mother-of-three, had denied false imprisonment and robbery at their trial at Canterbury Crown Court last month. Tanner, however, was convicted of both charges and the woman was found guilty of false imprisonment.

Tanner, of St Andrews Close, Whitstable, was jailed for 10 years for robbery and five years concurrent for false imprisonment. The woman, who comes from Herne Bay, was jailed for four years.

Peter Gower, prosecuting, told the court the boy was accosted by the woman in the Victoria Park area of Herne Bay in October last year. He was bundled into a car, the doors were locked and he was accused of sexual abuse.

But the teenager denied the allegation, saying he was camping with his parents at the time. Looking to escape, he then claimed he knew the real attacker and would take the pair to him.

Tanner, however, demanded a gold ring the boy was wearing, described by Judge Williams as his “pride and joy”.

The court heard that even after the victim of the sexual assault appeared and said the boy wasn’t responsible the ordeal continued. Tanner threatened to punch and stab him if he tried to run away. However, he did eventually manage to flee and raise the alarm.

Tanner told the court during his trial that he had a lengthy criminal record, including offences of wounding and assault, and had been jailed for seven years for robbery in 2000.

He had been recalled to prison for breaching his licence and had been released just days before the events in October.

During his evidence Tanner denied holding a knife to the boy’s face and claimed events had been blown up out of proportion.

Danny Moore, defending at Friday's sentencing hearing, said Tanner had reacted as the result of a legitimate belief but had not deliberately targeted someone they knew to be vulnerable.

He added the production of the knife had been momentary and, once put away, was not used as a direct threat.

“There is no evidence of any intention to cause an injury and there is no evidence that he caused an injury with the knife,” said Mr Moore.

The woman, a former care worker, told the court during her evidence that she had not forced the boy into the car and denied slapping or punching him.

Tanya Robinson, defending, said that shortly before the offences the woman had managed to “change her life around” after kicking her drug habit.

“This offence can be described as being entirely out of character,” she added. “It was an unpremeditated offence prompted rightly or wrongly by concern and she went about dealing with it in an entirely inappropriate way.”