A one-armed teenager with ‘below average learning ability’ was allegedly kidnapped and tortured for hours before being thrown in a river while bound and blindfolded by four former friends.
Kayla Kendrigan, 19, was allegedly driven to the seven-metre-high Windsor Bridge in northwest Sydney by four people: mother-of-one Brooke Brown, 19, Matthew Leuthwaite, 22, a 16-year-old boy and a 17-year-old girl.
According to police facts, the four picked up Ms Kendrigan from a friend’s house on Saturday and allegedly attacked her, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
She was allegedly forced into the boot of a Holden Commodore before being driven to a home in Whalan in the city’s west, bound to a chair with a phone charger and subjected to a ‘vicious, unprovoked and relentless group attack’, according to investigators.
Kayla Kendrigan, 19, was allegedly driven to the seven-metre-high Windsor Bridge in northwest Sydney by four people
Mother-of-one Brooke Brown, 19, has been charged with attempted murder, aggravated kidnapping, wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and robbery with wounding
Matthew Leuthwaite was arrested on Wednesday where he was refused bail
The teenage girl’s ‘significant birth defect’ meant she could not fight back, according to police facts.
The alleged torture – including being stabbed in the thigh with a knife, hit with a baseball bat, having her hair hacked off and being burned – lasted for six hours before Ms Kendrigan was thrown into the Hawkesbury River about 5am on Sunday.
Ms Kendrigan was able to swim to safety, and was then taken to hospital.
Her sister Imogen Gibson said both the victim and her family are ‘heartbroken’.
‘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,’ Ms Gibson told news.com.au.
‘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.’
Three of those behind bars have been charged with attempted murder and other offences including aggravated kidnapping.
Ms Kendrigan told police she was driven to the Windsor Bridge in the early hours of Sunday before a group of people threw her into the river below.
The incident began at Ambervale on Saturday night and the victim was driven 60km to Whalen and then to Windsor Bridge, northeast of Sydney.
She was transported to the bridge in the boot of the car before she was thrown into the Hawkesbury River, police will allege.
She was transported to the bridge in the boot of the car before she was thrown into the Hawkesbury River, police will allege (Pictured: even-metre drop into the water)
Officers seized a Holden Commodore at a property in Whalen and it was examined by forensics.
Police will allege the injured woman was transported from Campbelltown to Windsor in the boot of a car.
On Tuesday, Brown was charged with attempted murder, aggravated kidnapping, wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and robbery with wounding. She was refused bail and will face court on November 23.
Just after 2pm on Wednesday, a 17-year-old girl was also arrested at the police station.
Leuthwaite was also arrested on Wednesday where he was refused bail.
He was charged with attempted murder, detain for advantage in company, aggravated robbery and wound person with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
A 16-year-old boy was the fourth person arrested about 9am on Thursday.
The boy was charged with attempted murder, detain in company with intent to get advantage occasioning actual bodily harm, aggravated robbery, and wound person with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
He was refused bail to appear before a children’s court on Friday.
Leuthwaite was charged with attempted murder, detain for advantage in company, aggravated robbery and wound person with intent to cause grievous bodily harm
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