Victim lured to house, tied up in bizarre dating app kidnapping plot

A graduate of an elite eastern suburbs girls school has pleaded guilty to her role in a bizarre kidnapping plot where a man was lured to a home and robbed after speaking to a girl on a dating app.

A high-achieving graduate of an elite Catholic school has admitted to taking part in a bizarre kidnapping plot where a man was lured to an eastern suburbs home on a dating app before being bound with duct tape and robbed.

Former St Vincent’s College student Charlotte McAloon told police she “panicked” and only stayed when she saw the terrified man covered in a sheet because she wanted to “support” a ­younger friend.

McAloon, 19, appeared in the Downing Centre District Court yesterday after pleading guilty to detaining a person with the intention of obtaining an advantage. Her two teenage co-accused, a boy and a girl who cannot be named, also appeared before a closed court.

Charlotte McAloon became entangled in a bizarre kidnapping plot in the eastern suburbs. Picture: Derrick Krusche

According to police facts the kidnapping began when McAloon’s female 17-year-old friend connected with a 26-year-old man on a dating app, claiming to be 18.

“Hey you free tonight?” she wrote to him on April 21 last year, after ignoring earlier messages he sent.

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It was agreed the man would pay her $500 to meet at the eastern suburbs house but while he was en route he negotiated it down to $400.

According to court documents when he arrived he was led into a room by the girl — who he recognised from the app — before her male friend barged in with his “face covered” holding a knife in one hand and what ­appeared to be a baton in the other. “The man was scared and couldn’t speak,” the police facts said.

The documents state the boy and the girl then demanded money from him and his PIN numbers after going through his wallet. The man was told to sit on a chair, before the boy duct-taped his hands and legs together, taped over his eyes and threw a bed sheet over his head.

McAloon — who had been unaware the man was in the house — later heard shouting and walked into the room where she saw the bound man.

McAloon leaving court in Sydney on Tuesday. Picture: Damian Shaw

Police said McAloon was ­“instructed to watch the victim” and was left alone with him for five minutes. According to court documents, she told police: “I didn’t touch him with the knife or anything. I was just shit-scared. Just put on a ­balaclava, T-shirt and just ­waited with him.”

Court documents state the man was forced to hand over $4200 before the boy — who pleaded guilty to detaining in company — deleted the dating app, texts and call logs off the man’s phone and allowed him to leave. The victim immediately approached nearby police, who arrested the two teens and McAloon a short time later.

McAloon later told investigators: “I went in to, like, see what was happening and there was clearly a man draped in sheets.

“I just totally f … king panicked and I just, just went out to get some cereal.

“I just didn’t want to be a part of … whatever’s happening. I was, kind of, just having a panic attack about it.”

She said the only reason she was at the house was because her co-accused was going through a “rough time”.

According to her social media, McAloon attended St Vincent’s in Potts Point, which charges annual fees of $21,000, works as an executive assistant at major accounting firm EY, and was involved in YMCA Youth parliament. During proceedings the court was closed and the outcome of McAloon’s matter has not been released.