A TEENAGE kidnapper who snatched a 13-year-old boy from a burger bar and bundled him into a waiting car has been jailed for two years.

Billy Livingstone grabbed the youngster “like a rag doll” before driving him off to woods where he kept him captive.

And Snapchat video messages of the child being threatened were circulating as he was being held by the 19-year-old earlier this summer.

Hannah Squire, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court how CCTV caught the start of the incident at the Greenbridge branch of McDonald’s on Monday, July 9.

During the afternoon Livingstone is seen walking in and grabbing the slightly built schoolboy by the scruff of the neck, then frog-marching to his nearby VW Golf.

Watching the footage, Judge Jason Taylor QC said: “He was just dragged out like a rag doll.”

As Livingstone bundled him into the vehicle he was heard saying, “Keep him in there, hold him down”, the court was told.

Other members of the public were so concerned by what they saw that one videoed some of it on his mobile phone.

The boy’s mother went out in her car to join police searching for her son before he eventually returned home after about two hours.

The court was told the youngster had refused to tell police what happened amid fears there may be repercussions or being branded a ‘grass’.

Miss Squire said that the police are considering applying for a criminal behaviour order against the defendant because of his behaviour.

Livingstone, of Marlowe Avenue, pleaded guilty to kidnap.

Emma Handslip, defending, said he had accepted what he had done and is full of remorse. Although he had a string of previous convictions, including one for robbery, he had been out of trouble for more than a year and had never been jailed before.

A number of reports showed he had ‘slipped through the net’ in the way of lack of schooling and other issues.

She said that he did not want to continue to lead a criminal lifestyle when he is released.

Jailing him, the judge said: “It could be seen he was a far slighter person than you. He really had no physical ability to stop you doing what you did.

“Videos were circulating on Snapchat of him being threatened in the woods. After about two hours he returned home. It is not clear if you let him go or he escaped. It is clear this was a traumatic time.

“It seems to me that he is too scared to speak. It might be he fears repercussions or it might be he does not want to appear a snitch, to use a phrase.”

Following the case, Det Insp Helen Jacobs said: “The young boy was dragged into a nearby car in broad daylight when there were a number of people out and about.

“He was taken against his will to a wooded area where officers were fortunately able to locate him.

“Livingstone’s actions would have caused a serious amount of distress to the young boy and I am pleased that he has been issued with a custodial sentence.”