UK NEWS

KIDNAP TEACHER ZAPS LOVE RIVAL WITH TASER GUN

Wednesday January 23,2008

By Mark Reynolds

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A TEACHER having an affair with a married student has been arrested after allegedly tying up her husband and torturing him with a stun gun.

Brian Avery, 47, is accused of bundling his love rival at gunpoint into an underground garage before tying him to a chair and repeatedly pistol-whipping him.

He is then said to have shot him with a Taser gun, police sources said yesterday.

The attack only ended when a car pulled into the garage and the victim raised the alarm.

Avery then zapped him with the Taser and pistol-whipped him again before fleeing.

The teacher was later arrested as he left his nearby home. Inside officers found several stun guns.

Avery, of Ramsgate, Kent, was arrested in Italy after the attack in Camerlata near Como, where he has lived for three years offering private English lessons.

The 40-year-old victim is the husband of Hx Ling, 41, a Chinese student Avery had been tutoring for one year.

A police spokesman in Turin said last night: “The man was arrested after he was identified by the victim. He told us that the English teacher had been having a relationship for some time with his wife.

“When the victim arrived at his garage he was threatened with a gun and bundled into the garage where he was handcuffed and pistol-whipped.”

The husband was still recovering in hospital last night after last week’s attack, and is expected to remain there for at least another week.

Avery is being held in custody at Bassone jail. He told judge Luciano Storaci he was innocent and claimed mistaken identity, but was denied bail. He faces charges of kidnap, aggravated assault and illegal detention of a firearm and could be jailed for a minimum of 15 years.

Last night his father Brian, 68, a carpenter from Margate, Kent said he was not surprised at his son’s arrest, adding that the pair had not spoken for years.

“This sounds exactly like my son,” he said. “We broke off all ties in the end because he got himself into trouble.
“It’s because of that that we fell out. He’s not a hot head, but he will defend himself if he thinks he is being wronged.

“I’m not surprised to hear he’s in trouble. I suppose now, he’s in Italy and this happened, he’ll be on his own as well.”

He said his son left the country three or four years ago after marrying a woman called Dorothy. He was unsure if they were still together.

A spokeswoman for the British Consulate in Milan said: “We are aware of the case and have offered assistance.
Someone has been to see Mr Avery in prison but other than that there is nothing else we can say.”