Fridae

Two men from a small town northeast of Vancouver had been charged last Friday with first-degree kidnapping, rape and assault of a 47-year-old homeless man from Seattle.

Authorities said that the homeless man was allegedly held as a sex slave for eight days in a middle-class home in Brush Prairie, Washington equipped with a torture chamber.

The man whose hand and foot was shackled escaped on Thursday by climbing out a window and running to neighbours for help. The alleged victim was treated at Southwest Washington Medical Centre for severe bruises, including some caused by handcuffs and shackles.

Sheriff's officers said the defendants' Michael Aaron Wilson and William Joseph Fritsch's home had a large upstairs chamber equipped with electronic hospital equipment, two operating tables, video cameras, sexual devices, whips and restraints including dog collars.

Wilson, 45, and Fritsch, 22, were held on US$250,000 bail each.

According to court papers, the defendants confirmed the Seattle man's account of events in the house, but contended it was consensual sexual role-playing. Detectives said the two men met the Seattle man in an Internet chat room, sent him a bus ticket and picked him up in Portland on Aug. 28.

They then allegedly placed a hood over his face, gagged him and handcuffed him, driving him back to their Brush Prairie home.