Mathew Pirri jailed for role in revenge abduction of Micaela Jennings
A man has been jailed after saying he didn’t know what was going to happen when a woman was abducted, stuffed in a car boot and bashed in a horrifying revenge plot.
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Another man has been jailed over the revenge plan where a woman was abducted off the street, stuffed in a car boot and bashed.
Mathew Pirri, 41, was jailed in the District Court on Tuesday after admitting to lying to the court in his evidence that he had no idea about the sinister crime that awaited.
Ringleader Joshua Barry, 35, entangled Pirri, Michael Geoffrey Stewart, 38, Reon Gardiner, 43, Scott Harrison, 37, and Aaron Davies, 33 in his revenge plan that lasted close to 24 hours.
During sentencing, the court heard the victim, Micaela Jennings, 29, spent an evening with Barry in November 2019, prior to the offending.
“When Mr Barry was sleeping the victim took some of his belongings, then took his car,” Judge Liesl Kudelka said.
Barry orchestrated his revenge, with the court hearing a series of text messages of the group’s plans to abduct Ms Jennings.
Ms Jennings took the train with Davies on December 7, 2019, unknowingly shadowed by Harrison.
When they got off the train at Exeter, a car driven by Pirri pulled up next to her.
Harrison sprayed Ms Jennings with pepper spray and repeatedly hit her, before shoving her in the car.
The men delivered Ms Jennings to Barry who placed her in the boot of his car bound up in duct tape and brought her to Stewart’s house.
Stewart, who the victim said was wearing chunky rings, then punched Ms Jennings so hard it “broke her face”.
Barry then drove the victim to Gardiner’s Victor Harbor house where she was forced to stay the night.
The next day Barry drove her to her boyfriend’s storage shed at Port Adelaide, threatened her with a shotgun and told her to steal his belongings.
Barry then lost his nerve and dropped her off close to her mother’s house.
The jury unanimously found Davies, of no fixed address, and Barry, of Newport, guilty of false imprisonment and causing harm and Gardiner, of Hindmarsh Island, guilty of false imprisonment.
Harrison, of Taperoo, and Pirri, of Two Wells, previously pleaded guilty to false imprisonment and causing harm with intent while Stewart, of Littlehampton, pleaded guilty to recklessly causing harm.
Pirri gave evidence in court that he had no idea what was about to happen when he was waiting at the train station before the abduction.
He later admitted his evidence was misleading and inaccurate, with Judge Kudelka saying it was obvious he had been lying.
The court heard Pirri, who previously worked as a truck driver and in the mining industry, became addicted to methamphetamine after a workplace injury and marriage breakdown.
Judge Kudelka said the group’s vigilante justice would have been an “extremely frightening” ordeal for Ms Jennings.
Barry – who also pleaded guilty to drug and firearm offences – was sentenced in February to 12 years jail, with a non-parole period of seven years and six months.
The sentence was backdated to December 31, 2019.
Harrison was hit with three years and four months jail, with a non-parole of 10 months.
Judge Kudelka sentenced Davies to three years and 10 months jail, with a non-parole period of two years and two months – backdated to May 4, 2022.
Stewart was jailed for three years and one month jail, with a non-parole period of one year and seven months.
Gardiner, whose conduct was the only one that wasn’t premeditated, was ordered to serve two years jail, with a non-parole period of 14-months on home detention.
On Tuesday, Pirri, a father-of-three, was sentenced to three years and six months jail, with a non-parole period of two years.
The sentence was backdated to July 25.
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