Man was forced to live like a dog

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Two men who forced a former friend to repeatedly bark and eat pet food have been convicted of false imprisonment.

Paul Hassell, 38, was also made to lick shoes clean and go "walkies" by crawling to the shops during a two day ordeal last October.

Anthony Young, 43, and Lloyd Duncan, 45, both from Camberwell, south London, locked Mr Hassell in a kennel sized cupboard at night.

His ordeal ended when he managed to run away, Inner London Crown court heard.

Eyebrows shaved

The court heard Mr Hassell was forced to chew on a washing powder tablet and had his hair and eyebrows shaved off.

The jury was told his "humiliation and pain" finally ended when he ran off after being ordered to stay outside a shop.

He then managed to break into a house with a brick and call the police.

The two men were arrested shortly afterwards and claimed Mr Hassell had invented the entire account.

Soured friendship

He told the court how the defendants initially befriended him when he was "down on his luck".

But the jury heard the friendship turned sour not long afterwards and he did his best to avoid their company, before they spotted him outside a church in Streatham, south London.

Jurors heard that having persuaded Mr Hassell to come back to their flat in Camberwell they effectively turned him into a human dog.

Their victim said apart from the various humiliation techniques Young and Duncan subjected him to, he was also tortured.

He told the court how at one point they used a cigarette lighter to burn the hairs from his armpits and chest.

The pair were remanded in custody until 11 April for pre-sentence reports.