A lorry driver kidnapped after a hijack was in danger of being attacked by a gang of travellers minutes after being released, a jury heard.

Alan Jones, aged 57, was driven over 100 miles in the boot of a car following the hold-up on the M5 slip road at Whittington, near Worcester.

He was freed by his abductors in Wiltshire around midnight on June 21 last year and looking for help wandered into a camp of travellers.

Mr Jones tried to flag down two vans which came on the scene but neither driver would stop.

He then walked along a lane for a mile and arrived at a service station at junction 16 of the M4 near Swindon and was helped by trucker Eric Snell.

As Mr Snell dialled 999 from inside the cab, a gang of travellers from the camp surrounded the lorry for five minutes. They were armed with iron bars and made accusations against Mr Jones.

Mr Snell told Worcester Crown Court: "They weren't messing around. If they'd got him out of the cab, they would have killed him."

But as blows rained down on the lorry, a police patrol directed to the scene appeared and the travellers fled in a van.

The prosecution claims Mr Jones was kidnapped by a gang of men who stole his £171,000 computer load he had collected from Evesham.Com the same evening.

Deny

On trial are: Aaron Johnson, aged 19, his brother Simon Johnson, 21, and their father Frederick Johnson, 43, all of Culmington, Stirchley, Telford; Andrew Currie, 34, of Bourneside Drive, Brookside, Telford; Terence Cutler, 33, of Ellis Peters Drive, Telford; Philip Price, 47, of West Road, Wellington; Terence Devine, 38, of Coronation Road, Walsall Wood, Walsall; Philip Dolphin, 40, of Bishopdale, Brookside, Telford, and Stephen Booth, 39, of Hurleybrook Way, Leegomery, Telford.

All nine defendants deny conspiracy to rob Mr Jones of his load and conspiracy to kidnap him.

Cutler and Price deny possession of a firearm during a robbery.

Cutler and Simon Johnson also plead not guilty to the false imprisonent of an unnamed man on December 12, 2001, and possession of a firearm with intent to commit false imprisonment.

The jury have been told that Cutler, Price and Devine have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to steal the lorry.

Giving evidence, Mr Snell described how Mr Jones appeared near a roundabout waving his arms. He was wet, distressed, had a puffy face and red marks on his wrists where he had been handcuffed with plastic ties.

Mr Snell said the travellers had accused Mr Jones of being down to their camp and added: "I could see the blue lights coming. The gipsies looked worried and scarpered back to their camp."

The trial continues.