Woman sentenced to home detention after man zip-tied, assaulted and threatened during ‘vigilante’ home invasion

An Adelaide Oval worker has been sentenced for her role in a vicious “vigilante” home invasion sparked by threatening texts about the rape of children.

A woman has been sentenced to home detention after a Morphettville man and his mother were assaulted and threatened in their home by a trio wielding a blowtorch, claw hammer and small axe.

Caitlin Jane Richards, 26, and her two co-accused committed a “cowardly act” of “vigilante justice” described as premeditated and calculated when they went to the man’s home after threatening texts threatening the rape of children sent to her mother.

During sentencing, the District Court heard Richards and her co-accused, who were known to the victim, entered his Morphettville home at 7:30pm on June 3, 2022.

“(The co-accused) approached the victim and told him to zip-tie his wrists together,” Judge Joana Fuller said.

“They said to him, ‘do you like raping kids?’”

Richards was armed with a blow torch and approached the victim’s mother before flicking it on and off.

The victim’s mother disarmed Richards, who left the property and waited outside.

“(The co-accused) repeatedly hit his arms, legs and feet with the blunt end of the axe and hammer,” Judge Fuller said.

The mother screamed for help and managed to force the group out of the house before the victim called a friend who arrived and called police.

The victim sustained a fracture on his forearm, as well as bruising and abrasions to both legs and a cut to his left calf that required stitches.

Richards was arrested at a nearby house an hour later.

Richards, a single mother and barista at Adelaide Oval, pleaded guilty to aggravated serious criminal trespass and aggravated assault causing harm.

In a victim impact statement, the victim said that during the offending he was terrified he would end up disfigured, paralysed or dead.

The three accused entered the property wielding a blowtorch, claw hammer and a small axe.

“He was petrified that you were going to use the blowtorch on him,” Judge Fuller said.

“He finds it difficult to sit in his dining room and eat a meal.

“He rarely leaves the house and has lost many friends, some of whom are mutual friends of yours.”

The victim told the court he and Richards had been good friends for more than 10 years and the “betrayal of trust” made the experience “so much more traumatic”.

Counsel for Richards told the court her client and the victim had a long history, including occasions where the victim allegedly fed her son a marijuana-laced cookie, repeatedly threatened her and “bashed her” in May of 2022.

Prior to the assault, Richards’ mother received threatening messages interpreted to be a threat of rape against Richards’ son, who was five at the time.

Judge Fuller denounced the incident as “vigilante justice” because Richards believed the victim was threatening her and her son – a claim he did not deny.

Judge Fuller said while Richards “played no physical role in the assault” she was criminally responsible for the actions of her co-accused.

“What you did, through the actions of your co-accused, was cowardly, violent and terrifying and it cannot be justified by reference to his behaviour towards you,” she said.

Judge Fuller sentenced Richards to two years and 11 months, with a non-parole period of 19 months.

Due to Richards’ rehabilitation efforts and commitment to abstain from drugs, she was ordered to serve the sentence on home detention.