A WOMAN involved in a “brutal” gang assault of a man near Swan Hill has been jailed.
The offender, who can’t be named for legal reasons, accompanied Adrian Kepa Hull, Kane Polglase and a fourth person in carrying out the terrifying ordeal at Lake Boga in 2023.
The thugs kidnapped the victim from a country football oval and threatened to inject him with a syringe filled with rat poison to force him to change a police statement.
Kepa Hull and Polglase were sentenced in the County Court in Melbourne in June after pleading guilty to a string of charges.
Kepa Hull brandished a weapon as he and Polglase, along with two others, snatched their victim from the Lake Boga oval in a bid to force him to change a police statement.
A firearm was used to intimidate the man during the incident, but was not fired during the ordeal.
The victim was taken to a property where the violence escalated. The victim was bashed with a baseball bat and narrowly avoided being stabbed.
Kepa Hull told the victim he was going to gut him “like a fish” before attempting to stab him. The victim managed to fend off the attack, suffering a significant arm injury.
He was then strung up by an electrical cord slung over a door, as the group tried to hang him. At one stage, the group threatened to electrocute him while he stood under a running shower.
Things got even darker when the attackers threatened to inject the victim, first with a syringe filled with rat poison and later with what they claimed was a lethal dose of methamphetamine.
The victim was repeatedly kicked and threatened with a knife during the ordeal, before being taken to a second location, where he finally escaped his attackers.
He later presented to the Swan Hill hospital emergency department with extensive bruising, swelling, lacerations and a stab wound to his forearm.
Kepa Hull was jailed for six years and three months with a non-parole period of four years.
Polglase was given a four-years and five-month sentence with a non-parole period of two years and five months.
Judge Michael Bourke sentenced the third offender in the County Court in Melbourne the following day.
The offender pleaded guilty to one charge of assault, one charge of false imprisonment and one charge of reckless conduct endangering serious injury.
Judge Bourke said the victim suffered a “brutal ordeal”.
“Throughout or at different times throughout, the three accused before me were present,” he said.
“There is an overarching element or background of complicity in what happened to (the victim).
“The Crown concedes that not all of the three accused were present or active at all times.”
Th court heard the offender was complicit in the pre-planned arrangement that the victim be confronted at the football oval and threatened with assault.
“It is put on your behalf that you were not part of pre-arranged plan, that you are guilty on the basis of assisting the threat and assault at the oval,” Judge Bourke said
“Your complicity began when, under direction by him, you joined Kepa Hull in his vehicle and went with him to the oval.
“I find that you encouraged and assisted what happened at the oval, to the extent of that confrontation and threat to apply force.
“It is based on your role and assistance to the victim’s forced placement into the bathroom at your home and that he was made to stay there.”
The charge of reckless conduct endangering life related to the event, in the bathroom, of an electrical cord being placed around the victim’s neck and over a door.
“Your role was significant,” Judge Bourke said.
“You had entered the room with the extension lead, exposed wires at one end.
“As the victim’s feet came off the floor, with him gasping for breath, you were heard to say ‘Just hold it for another 30 seconds and he’s f***ed’.
“The victim was released and went to the floor. You kicked him.”
Judge Bourke said it was “very serious offending”.
“In an environment of a drug and criminal culture, your victim was subjected to an extravagantly brutal and cruel ordeal,” he said.
“As I have said, each of the three accused before me contributed to this in their respective ways.
“Such circumstances of offending, as to each, make relevant sentencing considerations and purposes of moral culpability, deterrence, strong condemnation of what was done and proportionate punishment of it.”
Judge Bourke said the offender’s sentence was “markedly” different to that of her two co-accused males.
“I find that justified by your lesser role and by those personal moderating factors raised,” he said.
The offender was sentenced to nine month’s imprisonment, and handed a community corrections order of two years’ duration to run from time of release from that sentence.
