Brisbane bank worker Nicholas Crilley given life sentence

A Brisbane banker has been jailed for life over the “cruel and callous” torture of a woman over more than three weeks, with a judge saying the man had been aroused by the vile acts and that he doubted his expressions of remorse. WARNING: GRAPHIC

THE depraved Queensland monster who “smiled” in phone selfies after he inflicted unimaginable pain on a woman, systematically torturing her for 23 days until she was on the brink of death, with maggots infesting her face, has been sentenced to life behind bars.

Sadistic torturer faces possible life sentence for nearly killing woman

Nicholas John Crilley sentencing: Torture victim reveals new hell after banker’s brutality

In the District Court in Brisbane yesterday Judge Anthony Rafter sentenced Nicholas John Crilley, 34, a banker formerly of Bulimba, to life in prison for seven charges - five of rape and two of malicious act with intent for hurting her, failing to get her medical help then leaving the woman permanently disfigured and with severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

He also received further sentences for another 48 charges to which Crilley pleaded guilty last month.

Nicholas John Crilley.

Judge Rafter said he regarded Crilley’s sexual arousal and pleasure after burning or beating his victim “deeply disturbing” cruel and depraved, and regarded his claims at remorse to be insincere.

He also found it “despicable” that Crilley recorded his “prolonged and sustained” and “sadistic” torture and depravity of the woman on his phone, which made it an especially “grave case” deserving the toughest penalty.

“You can be seen standing with the phone, and smiling,” Judge Rafter said of one of 22 images police found of the woman naked and badly injured, some showed her with a long black material tied around her neck.

“You took pleasure in the infliction of pain. Your brutality took her to the edge of death,” Judge Rafter said.

Some of the degrading acts were so sickening The Courier Mail has chosen not to describe them.

Crilley, who was using up to 1gram of ice a day at the time, made two audio recordings on his phone, one running up to 22 minutes as he “interrogated” his victim about her sexual partners, and forcing her to confess to shooting his house in a drive-by shooting in 2015.

Police also found 10 videos of him assaulting her while she was very badly injured.

He starved her and forced her to toilet in a container, and burned her with boiling water, and acetone, and a cigarette lighter so many times she lost count, and at one point held up two bottles of a new liquid, telling her it was “torture liquid “One drop of this s*** and you will tell me everything.”

She suffered burns to 46 per cent of her total body, her top lip detached, she had a hole in her forehead possibly from being struck with a screwdriver, and the tip of her little finger had to be amputated because it was so badly crushed from defending herself from blows.

Most of the torture occurred at Crilley’s Bulimba townhouse but he also raped her while her burns were peeling and her skin was rotting during a short stay at the Tower Mill Hotel in Spring Hill..

Judge Rafter found that Crilley knew how seriously injured the woman was, because he told a mate on the day he called triple-0: “I’ve hit her that hard that she can’t even talk, I poured methylated spirits onto her and set her alight, I have pummelled her so hard that I think she had a stroke. She can’t talk anymore”.

Fortunately later that day Crilley called triple-0 anonymously and ambulance and hospital staff found her tied to a bed in the Bulimba townhouse where Crilley lived.

On arrival ambulance and police thought she was dead because her eyes were swollen shut and the side of her face was missing all of the skin.

After she groaned they realised she was still alive and they were able to save her life.

She spent 10 days in a coma and has spent years recovering including learning to walk again and needing help with eating and talking because of serious burns and injuries to her face and legs.

She told the court she fears the physical and emotional scars will mean she never has a friend, a lover or a job again and she remains frightened that her face will never look the same again - even with reconstructive surgery.

Judge Rafter concluded saying that Crilley’s victim’s life had been forever altered, yet she showed “courage, dignity and resilience”.