A few moments earlier, Kashti had been lying face down in a rented cottage handcuffed to a radiator pipe after being beaten by three men, Faiz Shah, 22, Mohammad Comrie, 23, and Elinaj Ogunnubi-Sime, 20, who were each sentenced on Friday to over eight years imprisonment for the crime.
Swansea Crown Court heard how the trio had planned an elaborate ruse to entice Kashti to Wales in August last year with the intention to extort him for money because of his Jewish heritage and perceived wealth.
Just before sentencing the men, who attempted to conceal the “Islamic angle” of their plan and threatened to kill Kashti if he tried to escape, Judge Catherine Richards stated she had “no doubt” the victim was targeted due to their “understanding of his wealth and Jewish heritage.”
Kashti, a London-based musician and producer, emigrated to the UK in 2008 from Israel, with the goal of entering the music scene here.
After receiving heavy kicks and punches to his head and body inside the remote rented property in west Wales, Kashti realised that there was “nothing” he could do due to being outnumbered. “Pardon my French, but I thought f***, I’m done for,” he said.
There was then a “odd” moment of silence for a couple of minutes when they left him alone in the room handcuffed to the radiator. He recalls realising the handcuffs seemed “cheap, like they were bought from Amazon. I guess there was no budget for production this time,” he joked.
“Initially, in a blurry state, I thought I could never escape. I thought to myself I’m not that able to, so I barely tried, I’m really not that handy. Luckily, I realised the pipe wasn’t attached to the ceiling and had a loose end. So, I moved my hands above the fixture.”
Operating on “pure instinct”, Kashti looked around the small living room to see his suitcase and equipment he thought he would need for the week-long creative excursion. He grabbed his phone and “signature Martin acoustic guitar” and fled for the exit.
“In hindsight, the guitar was an odd choice but, well, it’s very specific. I didn’t want to lose it.” He describes those moments of decision-making as “happening on auto pilot”.
“It’s like a jazz musician,” he said, “if you try to transcribe each note later, you won’t be able to, but in the moment, it made sense [to me] and I just went for it.”
He found himself immediately distrustful of the other buildings in the small holiday-making area he was in, fearful that others might be collaborating with the criminals.
The remote rented cottage in west Wales Itay was lured to (Credit: Crown Prosecution Service)[Missing Credit]
Hidden by some shrubbery, he prioritised sending his wife his location over WhatsApp, then he called her and, thankfully, she picked up immediately. “I tried to tell her what happened, and she initially asked me if I was joking because, you know, I can be a bit of a prankster. But I said: ‘No, that really just happened, I’m dead serious.’”
Kashti then called emergency services who, at first, “complained” about the volume of his communication. “I explained I was whispering for fear of my life in a strange place. I said I am currently handcuffed and trying not to provoke anything from my immediate surroundings.”
Despite having a little bit of trouble finding Itay given the remoteness of his location, the police arrived on the scene quickly. “The Welsh police really did operate admirably,” he said, “They were very respectful and dignified. I knew I was in safe hands. They took every necessary step to capture [the three men] that very night.”
A face mask obtained and used by the attackers (Credit: Crown Prosecution Service)[Missing Credit]
He arrived in A&E in a Welsh hospital initially feeling “shell-shocked”, but a little while later, began to feel “bewildered but elevated” after coming to terms with having survived the ordeal.
“I started making sarcastic comments and strange jokes to the hospital staff. The Welsh staff were in absolute shock, like they were thinking: ‘Who is this guy? He looks like Gene Simmonds or Marc Bolan, bruised like Rocky, still holding on to his guitar’.”
Kashti received several stitches to his face, but a CT scan showed no permanent damage. “I still have some scars, and though I look kind of the same as before to most people, I still see the marks.”
Kashti recalls that while handcuffed and lying beaten on the floor of the cottage, images of October 7 flashed through his mind. “I’m not suggesting [what I went through] was anything as remotely horrific, but it’s interesting to see what the weight of national trauma can have [on a person].
“When lying face down, I felt like one of those people attacked in kibbutzes. In my case, I was foolish enough to let this happen to myself. I wasn’t kidnapped from my bed. But, still, when I ran through the incident later in my mind, I realised how significant these emotions at the time were.
“In Israeli schools, we are taught Holocaust education quite heavily, saying that we will never be led like sheep to the slaughterhouse again. But here I was, lying there, handcuffed.”
In Swansea Crown Court on Friday, the court heard how Shah, Comrie, and Ogunnubi-Sime had meticulously and painstakingly conspired how best to convince Kashti the opportunity was legitimate, which included employing a fake identity and posing as a legitimate record company.
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Mohammad Comrie, Faiz Shah and Elijah Ogunnubi-Sime were sentenced to more than 20 years between them (South Wales Police)[Missing Credit]
When he first got the email, Kashti said everything appeared professional, so he scheduled a call with them to “talk shop”.
“[During] the conversation, I was getting a hunch maybe they are a bit green (inexperienced), but they still spoke relatively on point. In general, the conversation didn’t raise alarm bells.
“Everyone can look back and trace all the [suspicious] things and say of course you should have seen this or that, but at the time there was nothing that really indicated to me that I was walking into a trap.
“Why would anyone pretend? I’ve never heard of something like that before, it’s not the kind of fraud that takes place [in the music industry].”
Following the ordeal, the Community Security Trust (CST), which provides safety and security advice to the Jewish community in the UK, assisted Kashti in setting up therapy sessions. “That was an immediate bandage to the trauma,” he said.
