A BUS driver sobbed as he re-lived a five-day kidnap ordeal which saw him repeatedly branded with an iron.

Gabriel Dugbo was snatched at his depot and tortured as the gang demanded £100,000 from his family over the phone, a court heard.

The 27-year-old escaped after a social worker visited the flat in Lewisham where he was being held.

It is claimed he became an innocent victim of the gang during a dispute over his brother's drug debt.

Mr Dugbo, from Croydon, was treated in hospital for multiple burns all over his face, body and genitals.

Dwayne Callender and Daniel Buchanan, both 24, deny involvement in the plot while 18-year-olds Daniel Lindo and James Thomas, have admitted their roles.

Mr Dugbo gave evidence from behind a curtain at Inner London Crown Court.

He told how he was set upon as he finished his shift driving the number 21 bus in the early hours of September 1, last year.

Three men smashed into his silver Audi as he prepared to drive away from the New Cross depot in Pepys Road, it is claimed.

He said: "Before I knew it they took out something and hit my window. Whatever it was hit my head because my head started bleeding.

"I thought it was a gun. So much blood was coming down my face.

"He jumped in and unlocked the door so his friends could get in."

Mr Dugbo added: "The driver hit me with something and I pretended they had knocked me out."

The terrified prisoner was then driven to a flat, tied up and blindfolded with tape.

He tried to escape when his captors fell asleep but was caught before he made it to the front door.

Mr Dugbo said: "At that point one man said: Plug the iron in,' then he was burning me on the arm.

"He was asking me for my brother's phone number. He phoned someone and said: We've got Gabriel, I want my money or Gabriel's dead'.

"I gave them the pin number and they were still burning me, saying: If you're lying you'll die'.

"There was one point where they took off my clothes and they were burning me all over my legs."

Three days after the kidnap his captors locked him in a toilet at a second flat belonging to Thomas, in Broome Street, Lewisham.

There he was tied to the sink and radiator and the beatings continued.

The ordeal ended on the fifth day when Thomas' social worker arrived at the flat and heard the victim's cries from the toilet.

Lindo and Thomas fled to a nearby park and tried to hide him in a bin but Mr Dugbo ran down Lewisham Hill to a cafe.

Callender, of no fixed address, and Buchanan, of St Margaret's Road, Brockley, deny conspiracy to kidnap and conspiracy to possess a firearm between August 31 and September 6, last year.

Thomas, of Broome Street, Lewisham, admits conspiracy to kidnap and Lindo, of Hoover House, Beckenham Hill Road, Beckenham, admits a charge of false imprisonment on September 5.

The trial continues.