Kidnap threat left Burrell 'sick'

Jan 31 2012

Former royal butler Paul Burrell said he was "sick to his stomach" when he received a phone call from a man saying he had kidnapped his wife, a court has been told.

Chester Crown Court heard Mr Burrell had been the victim of threatening phone calls made to his business in which the caller also threatened to place an "incendiary device" at his flower shop.

Mr Burrell, 53, was giving evidence in the trial of Slav Mitev, 50, who is charged with harassment and causing a victim to be put in fear of violence.

However, Judge Elgin Edwards, The Recorder of Chester, ruled that Mitev, of Station Road, Wood Green, London, was not fit to enter a plea to the charges due to his mental state.

Judge Edwards told the jury of seven men and five women they just had to come to a decision about whether or not he was guilty of the acts alleged.

Taking to the witness stand, Mr Burrell, wearing a pin-striped suit, blue shirt and yellow tie, re-lived a number of phone calls which were made to Paul Burrell Flowers in Farndon, near Chester, in June and July last year.

In one call, the person on the other end of the phone made threats to set his shop - where he was living at the time - on fire.

Mr Burrell told the jury: "The caller said 'have you got a pen because I want you to write this down. I am going to use an incendiary device. Do you know how much shattered glass there will be in your shop?'"

He then received another call just a few minutes later which he said was the "most disturbing" because it referred to his wife Maria.

Mr Burrell said: "I said she is in America. He said, 'no she's not. Can't you hear her?'. And what I could hear in the background was a woman sobbing and someone crying saying 'please help me, help me please'."