Rachel Worden sentenced for detaining in company, assaulting police officer, damaging property
A Southern Tablelands woman has been sentenced for her role in a group assault against a house guest that has left him “wishing he wasn’t alive”. Warning: sensitive content.
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A Southern Tablelands woman has been sentenced for her role in a group assault against a house guest that has left him “wishing he wasn’t alive,” as well as assaulting a police officer and causing thousands of dollars of damage to a local hospital.
Rachel Worden, 26, appeared via audiovisual link at Goulburn District Court last Thursday for her sentence.
The Goulburn local previously pleaded guilty to taking / detaining in company with the intention to get advantage occasioning actual bodily harm, destroying or damaging property and two counts of assaulting a police officer in execution of duty.
According to the fact sheet tendered to the court, in 2021 the victim and a friend visited Worden’s unit at about 10pm.
Court documents state that Worden, another woman and two men were all “doing bongs” in the lounge room, when the discussion about the victim being a paedophile came about, purely because the friend that accompanied him was a minor.
Facts state he was told to be quiet, and taken upstairs by the two men, one being Brennen Crossman who has been charged with detaining in company occasioning actual bodily harm and has not pleaded yet.
The victim was then made to strip waist up and Crossman allegedly forced a pair of socks in his mouth, documents state.
According to documents, police showed up at the house at around 11pm and took the minor home, after Worden had called to say that she was a minor and didn’t want her to be in an environment where people were drinking.
Upon greeting them, police observed that Worden was drunk and holding a near empty wine bottle.
While upstairs, documents state the victim was burnt by a cigarette that the other woman stubbed on his bare shoulder.
Afterwards, he was forced downstairs where the unknown man pushed a knife to his ear, and Worden held a 30cm knife lengthways to his inner arm.
According to facts, the two accused men then started punching and kicking him on the floor, and Worden and the other woman also took turns punching him five times each.
He was also dragged in and out of a cavity under the stairwell – once by his hair the court heard – and continually assaulted by the two accused men.
Facts state Worden was sitting quietly in the lounge room when all of this was occurring.
When detaining him in the cavity one of the times, the unknown man noticed a butt plug and demanded that the victim insert it into his anus and then his mouth.
The act was recorded on a phone, and the 45 second footage was played in court and described by Judge Julia Baly as “disturbing.”
The recording depicted the word “pedo” written on the victim’s forehead.
When he asked for water, facts state Crossman allegedly filled a dog bowl with water, which the victim drank and used to wash blood from his mouth.
Documents state he was detained there a total of four hours and threatened by everyone to not report the matter to police.
According to the facts, Worden demanded that he take the rest of his clothes off when leaving and the victim then ran out naked.
Judge Baly said he suffered a number of injuries from the event, including minimally displaced fractures of the right temple bone, hearing loss in the left ear, two black eyes, split lips and burn marks to the right shoulder.
Documents state the matter was then reported to police by someone who knew Worden for quite some time, after she proudly sent him the video on Facebook Messenger.
He recognised her voice in it and the victim being kicked in the nose by her foot, which she confessed to via text, as well as orchestrating everything else.
Facts state she told him that when the victim was forced to run out naked, she said to him:
“You better kill yourself when you get home cause if you don’t then I’m going to send people over to your house and finish the job that I have started.”
Judge Baly called the incidents “very serious crimes” and described them as “clear vigilante action.”
“It’s horrific what was done to the victim,” Judge Baly said.
“(Worden) clearly played a major role even if she didn’t strike all the blows.’
The court also heard she committed the crimes while on a community corrections order.
“This will have long standing effects on the victim,” Judge Baly said.
“His wellbeing has been affected 100 per cent – he barely sleeps, is always on edge, doesn’t leave the house, has panic attacks, experiences anxiety, has difficulty eating and most days he ‘wishes he wasn’t alive’.”
Judge Baly mentioned a medical report, which concluded that Worden’s actions that night were a “past trigger,” arising from “unresolved trauma.”
She said that Worden has a history of drug abuse and experienced domestic violence at the hands of a partner.
Judge Baly also said Worden was medically treated 82 times for situations including self harm, alcohol withdrawal, intentional overdose, anxiety, seizures, and various behaviour disturbances.
The court heard from a medical report that most recently, she was hospitalised for drinking five bottles of hand sanitiser at Westmead Hospital, because she was desperate to drink alcohol.
The clinical and forensic psychologist who wrote the medical report diagnosed her with bipolar.
“She has limited personal and emotional coping skills and resorts to aggressive and impulsive behaviour,” Judge Baly said.
“To her credit, she has insight and has expressed openness to intervention.”
“The rehabilitation process will be challenging for her and there will be frequent reversals.”
Following her arrest on May 17, facts state Worden had a medical issue and was brought to Goulburn Base Hospital to detox, documents state.
At about 4.30am, documents state she woke up and started screaming loudly, yelling “I want to go home,” at which point her behaviour escalated and she began causing damage to the room, posing a significant risk to nurses, biting and punching two police officers, and head butting the wall and floor.
According to court documents, the damage caused to the room in the surgical ward was estimated to be $2,750.
The disturbances went on until 2pm on May 18 and she was then transferred back to police custody, where she has been since.
All of the extensive matters were greatly considered by Judge Julia Baly before she announced the sentence.
Special circumstances were granted due to Worden’s mental health conditions and she was sentenced to six years in jail, with three years and three months non parole.
She is eligible for release from August 26 2024.
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