THE sister of a disabled teen girl who was allegedly kidnapped, tortured and thrown off a Sydney bridge, has revealed how the 19-year-old “fought through that terrible night” of terror.
Imogen Gibson today exclusively told news.com.au that her sister Kayla Kendrigan was “still in a lot of pain” following the harrowing ordeal in the city’s west on the weekend.
“She’s heartbroken, and so is our family,” Ms Gibson said.
“I never will be able to understand why someone would do this to her. She was always sweet and gentle. She never got into fights or hit anyone.
“It pains my heart so much because my sister was born with one arm, so she has never been able to swim or fight, but she fought through that terrible night like a fighter.”
Ms Kendrigan was allegedly kidnapped from Ambarvale by a group of former friends and tortured for hours before she was thrown off a bridge in a murder attempt, police allege.
Court documents viewed by news.com.au claim Ms Kendrigan was forced into the boot of a car and driven about 50kms north to a house in Whalan. Once inside the home, the victim was tied to a chair, blindfolded, bashed with a bat, burned, punched, kicked, stabbed and had her hair hacked off, according to police.
The ordeal lasted several hours, allegedly at the hands of four people known to Ms Kendrigan, in the outskirts of Sydney, on Saturday night and Sunday morning.
Brooke Brown, 19, Matthew Leuthwaite, 22, a 17-year-old girl and a 16-year-old boy were this week charged with several offences including the attempted murder and aggravated kidnapping of Ms Kendrigan. They’re each facing up to 25 years jail.
A video emerged on Facebook this morning allegedly taken during the kidnapping, which showed one of the alleged offenders demand Ms Kendrigan “get in the car (or) I’ll drag you in the f**kin boot”.
“Hurry the f**k up,” the person continues.
Ms Kendrigan then goes to use her phone and screams for her “dad” to help as one of the group members snatches the device from her hands. Moments later she can be heard crying and screaming “just leave me alone”.
Another clip shows a male yelling at the victim, as one person waves and another woman watches television inside a house. Ms Kendrigan can be seen tied to a chair with a phone charger cord as she is dragged through a hallway into another room.
“Don’t smile this ain’t supposed to be f**kin’ fun,” the man can be heard saying.
“This is the gronk that wants to call people f**kin’ dogs … now she’s tied up in a room like a c***… yeah, yeah that’s how it works.”
Court documents allege the group believed Ms Kendrigan, who police described as a “quietly spoken person with a below-average learning ability”, had earlier called one of them “a dog”.
Ms Kendrigan, who was born without a left lower arm or hand, told police she was later forced back into the boot of the car, while still blindfolded and bound in the early hours of Sunday morning. She was then driven to Windsor Bridge and thrown off into the Hawkesbury River about 5am, according to police. The drop was about 20 metres.
“A period of 5-6 hours, in what can best be described as ‘torture of the victim’, it was a group decision to dump the victim away from the premises so as not to come under police notice,” court documents allege.
“As a result … of a birth defect … she would not be able to physically resist any attack or defend herself in a reasonable manner.
“The victim struggled to swim and float, managing to hold herself out of the water momentarily, and was able to make her way to the George St side of the river bank, and raise the attentions of persons at a nearby residence.”
Police and paramedics were called to the scene and she was taken to the Nepean Hospital and treated for serious injuries. She has since been discharged, several sources close to Ms Kendrigan told news.com.au.
According to court documents, Ms Kendrigan was visiting a friend in Ambarvale in western Sydney on Saturday before she asked her housemate, Ms Brown, if she could pick her up and bring her home to Whalan. The pair had known each other for about two months and were relatively “new friends”, sources close to them told news.com.au.
Ms Brown agreed to collect Ms Kendrigan but also brought along her ex-partner, Mr Leuthwaite, the 17-year-old girl and 16-year-old boy, who can’t be named for legal reasons due to their ages. Police will allege the group planned during the drive to punch and “assault” Ms Kendrigan on arrival over an earlier verbal argument between the victim and the co-accused 17-year-old girl. But the incident allegedly took a much uglier turn when they instead forced her into Ms Brown’s car and held her against her will before eventually throwing her off the bridge.
According to police, the victim sustained “significant injuries” including two stab wounds to her lower legs, deep bruising to her head and face, soreness to her upper body and lower back, burn marks to her hand and severe emotional trauma.
Police will allege that Ms Kendrigan was left for dead and that “the actions of the accused and co-accused was a group decision”.
“(They) have demonstrated a common purpose in order to inflict extreme pain and suffering to the victim while having no regard to whether these actions bought about the death of the victim,” police documents read.
Mark Syther, who has been dating Ms Kendrigan for about a month, told news.com.au that she was “hurt...not in an OK state...but she’s doing OK”.
“With the love and support from everyone she will (be a) happy girl again,” he said.
“I’m with her all the way.”
Ms Kendrigan’s father Ian said his daughter was “lucky to be alive” and thanked authorities in a Facebook post.
“I would like to say from the bottom of my heart a huge thank you to police and detectives you have done a fantastic job,” he wrote.
All four of the accused remain in custody.
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Young woman 'fought through the night' before being thrown off bridge"
Post a Comment