Former Australian Cricketer Stuart MacGill Allegedly Kidnapped at Gunpoint

Photo credit should read WILLIAM WEST/AFP via Getty Images

Australian cricketer Stuart MacGill was the victim of a kidnapping, according to Fergus Hunter and Laura Chung of the Sydney Morning Herald.

Hunter and Chung reported four men were arrested. Among those facing charges is Marino Sotiropoulos, who's the brother of MacGill's partner, Maria O’Meagher.

On April 14, Sotiropoulos and two others allegedly confronted MacGill and forced him to enter a vehicle.

"He was allegedly driven to a property at Bringelly, more than 60 kilometres away in the city’s south-west, where three men assaulted him and threatened him with a firearm," Hunter and Chung wrote.

MacGill allegedly was then driven to another location 40 kilometers away and released.

Australian authorities said the crime appears to have been financially motivated and that MacGill was initially concerned about reporting the kidnapping to police, per the BBC.

"To be standing on a street, to be dragged into a car, driven a remote location, physically assaulted, threatened with a firearm, held for a period of time and then dumped, I think you would be pretty worried," detective Anthony Holton said. "I know it is only an hour that he was held, but it would have been a horribly frightful hour to endure through."

MacGill only suffered minor injuries and didn't require additional medical care.

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The 50-year-old retired from competitive cricket in 2008, having appeared in 44 Test matches for Australia over his career. He also agreed to a confidential settlement with Cricket Australia in 2017 after filing a AU$2.6 million lawsuit over injury payments he said he didn't receive.

He now serves as a general manager for a Sydney-area restaurant.