A SEX-STARVED musician kidnapped a prostitute after a gig and took her on a terrifying journey in his car until it careered off the road, a court heard yesterday.

Thomas Jackson was jailed for more than three years for holding the 27-year-old vice girl against her will after he picked her up off the street in central Middlesbrough.

Jackson said he locked the doors on his Vauxhall Vectra and drove off with the woman because he believed she had stolen his mobile phone.

But after his arrest, the handset went off and Jackson was seen reaching into his jeans to retrieve it.

Jackson admitted kidnap, but said it was in the mistaken belief that his phone had been taken, while prosecutors insisted he had a more sinister motive.

At Teesside Crown Court yesterday, Judge Brian Forster ruled that Jackson had been lying.

The court heard the 49-yearold picked up the prostitute early on January 12 and went to a secluded spot near the town centre for a £15 sex act.

He said he became startled when a van pulled into the alley, panicked and yanked up his jeans, then thought his phone was missing.

He told the court he refused to let the woman go until she handed it back, and drove off to stop her getting out until it was returned.

The prostitute said she feared for her life, kept grabbing the steering wheel and putting on the warning lights to attract help.

The car left the carriageway on the A66 outside Middlesbrough, and passing police saw the woman trying to escape.

She started to suffer an asthma attack and shouted: “He’s going to kill me. Get me out of here.”

The court heard that Jackson was convicted of making indecent images of children in 2003. After his arrest in January, he told police he loved his wife, but visited prostitutes because she had lost her sex drive.

Jackson, of High Street, Loftus, east Cleveland, admitted kidnap, soliciting and driving without due care and attention, and was jailed for three years and three months.

His lawyer, Sean Grainger, said Jackson never harmed the woman or threatened to.