Beauty boss walks free after tourist lured, tortured

The owner of two Gold Coast beauty salons walked from court on a “knife’s edge” after a tourist was lured from a Noosa resort, held and tortured.

Katrina Patricia Nadine Gorrie walks from court on parole on Wednesday after being sentenced for seven charges including assault and deprivation of liberty.

The owner of two Gold Coast beauty salons walked from court on a “knife’s edge” after a tourist was lured from a Noosa resort, held and tortured.

Katrina Patricia Nadine Gorrie, 33, was on Wednesday sentenced to three years in jail with immediate release on parole for her involvement in the five-hour ordeal on April 14, 2019.

Katrina Patricia Nadine Gorrie leaves Maroochydore Court House on Wednesday.

Maroochydore District Court heard the mum-of-two and business owner had known co-offender Timothy Andrew Butler for just days when they coaxed a tourist they met at Sofitel Noosa into a hatchback.

Crown prosecutor Christopher Cook said Butler drove for five minutes before he began swearing and yelling at the man from Sydney.

Butler then began punching the man in the head.

“Stop being a pussy,” Gorrie told the tourist as he pleaded for his freedom.

Butler continued to drive around for hours, calling the tourist names and periodically assaulting him.

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Gorrie stole the tourist’s wallet and demanded his card pin before Butler withdrew $1000 from the man’s account about 3am.

The tourist was eventually left at Tewantin about 5.30am after Butler made death threats to him about contacting authorities.

Police took photos of the victim’s superficial injuries when he presented at a station later that day.

Katrina Patricia Nadine Gorrie.

Gorrie advertised the involved hatchback for sale on Facebook days after the ordeal.

She was arrested on the Gold Coast on April 24, 2019, when she denied her involvement.

Mr Cook said Gorrie was a party to the violence perpetrated by Butler because she aided and enabled his behaviour.

“(The victim) has suffered not just physically but in many other ways which is evident from his victim impact statement,” Mr Cook said.

Butler was sentenced in September to six years in jail for torture and will be eligible for parole in May next year.

Gorrie on Wednesday pleaded guilty to seven charges including one count of deprivation of liberty and three counts of assault occasioning bodily harm in company.

She had spent 227 days in pre-sentence custody.

Defence barrister Nicholas McGhee said his client had struggled with alcohol abuse since she began binge-drinking as a teenager and most of the offending on her criminal history was alcohol-related.

He said Gorrie had made significant efforts to rehabilitate and sending her back to jail would be detrimental to her new life, counter productive and would not serve the community.

Mr McGhee added Gorrie had drunk a lot of alcohol at the time of the Noosa kidnapping and did not actually hit the tourist herself.

“She was on a suspended sentence for sticking a knife through someone’s hand when she participated in this,” Judge Deborah Richards responded.

“And she robbed him, stealing is personal property.

“When he was being assaulted, she deprived him of his liberty when she could have easily helped him escape on a number of occasions.”

Mr McGhee said that was accepted.

Katrina Patricia Nadine Gorrie.

The court heard Gorrie owned two Gold Coast beauty salons, was in a stable relationship and focused on her two children, the youngest being 14 months old.

Judge Richards sad Gorrie had clearly lied to police about her involvement and lacked remorse.

She considered sending Gorrie back to jail could mean the collapse of her businesses, bring trauma to her children and delay her rehabilitation.

“So while it’s a knife edge, at the end of the day I’ve decided I’m going to let you go on parole today,” Judge Richards said.

Gorrie walked from court and embraced her family outside.