ROBIN Bolton was lured to a fish and chip shop before being allegedly kidnapped, his girlfriend assaulted and her pet hamster Peanut dying of shock, a court heard.
Peanut died after its cage was smashed up, a jury at Gloucester Crown Court was told yesterday.
Luke Workman and his ex-wife Natalie Bitchenor, both from Quedgeley, are alleged to have assaulted Catherine Hellewell and left her pet dead after kidnapping her then boyfriend Mr Bolton.
The court heard Mr Bolton was lured to a fish and chip shop near their Westward Road home in Stroud, before the pair threatened him by tapping him "gently" on the head with a baseball bat and forcing him to show them where he and Miss Hellewell lived.
Prosecutor Nick O'Brien said Bitchenor's sister Becky had split up with Mr Bolton after a two-year relationship and having a child together.
Two weeks later he had moved in with Miss Hellewell, his work colleague from Bloom's garden centre.
Pushed
Mr O'Brien said: "His former partner took it badly after being left on her own with a small child and her sister decided to take it up as her own cause."
He told the court Bitchenor rang Mr Bolton and said her sister had been taken into hospital so he needed to look after their son.
Mr Bolton said he did not want his former sister-in-law knowing where they lived, so they arranged to meet them down the road where he discovered Bitchenor without his son and Workman armed with a baseball bat.
Mr O'Brien said: "They demanded to know where Miss Hellewell lived. Workman got out of the car and had a baseball bat, he said 'you know what will happen if you don't tell us' before he was pushed into the car.
"At the house the two women had a fight and Workman hit her when she was on the ground and hit her with a baseball bat. He told her 'don't mess with gypsies'."
During the violence, Peanut's cage was smashed and the hamster died.
Bitchenor, 23, from Dunlin Close, Quedgeley, and Workman both denied kidnap, burglary and assault. Workman, 24, of Saddlers Road, Quedgeley, also pleaded not guilty to having an offensive weapon in a public place. The trial continues.
