Windsor bridge torture: Attackers apologise to disabled victim Kayla Kendrigan
A former couple who tortured a young disabled woman before throwing her off a bridge and leaving her for dead have told her they are sorry.
Penrith
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A disabled woman who was tortured for more than eight hours before being thrown off a bridge in Windsor and left for dead has confronted her attackers in court.
Kayla Kendrigan was 19 years old when she was kidnapped by Matthew Leuthwaite, 23, and his former partner Brooke Brown, 20, a 17-year-old girl and a 16-year-old boy from Ambarvale on September 26, 2018.
Leuthwaite and Brown faced Penrith District Court today, pleading guilty to a string of charges including detaining for advantage in circumstances of aggravation and robbery in company.
Ms Kendrigan was abducted by the group and taken to Brown’s home in Whalan where she was tied up before being tortured for eight and a half hours.
She was then bundled into the boot of a car and driven around for two hours before she was thrown 20 metres off the Windsor Bridge into the Hawkesbury River at 5am the following day.
Ms Kendrigan relived the ordeal in court today, with videos taken on the night played to a room of shocked onlookers.
In the first clip, filmed by Leuthwaite, Brown was seen threatening Ms Kendrigan to get in her car. She is later heard screaming when one of the juveniles takes her phone off her.
In the second video, filmed at Brown’s Whalan home, the terrified teenager is seen tied to a chair with Leuthwaite yelling to her, “This ain’t meant to be fun. Next time you’re going to get your mouth tied too. This ugly f***ing b***h here wants to call people dogs”.
The court heard Ms Kendrigan suffered “gratuitous violence” and was stabbed, threatened with a wooden bat, humiliated by having her hair cut and eyebrows shaved off while being bound and gagged.
Ms Kendrigan, who was born with the lower part of her left arm missing, was threatened that her other arm would be cut off.
During cross-examination, Brown said she had been coerced by her former partner to take part in the torture, which took place while a three-year-old child slept in another room.
“My role was to drive the car. Later on, I got physically involved by hurting the victim,” Ms Brown said.
“If I could go back and take it all back I would. I’m ashamed of myself.
“She’s going to remember it for the rest of her life. If I was her, I wouldn’t be able to leave the house.”
She later apologised to Ms Kendrigan.
Leuthwaite said he regretted his actions, which were sparked by Ms Kendrigan reportedly calling him a “dog”.
“Naturally I regret it, mainly because of the impact it had on her and her family,” Leuthwaite said.
“As a parent myself, I would be horrified if that was my kid. No one deserves that.”
The crown prosecutor said the offending was “absurd”.
“This was over something extraordinarily trivial that went on and on and escalated to an absurd level of violence, intimidation and fear,” he said.
“No vigilante-esque behaviour excuses this sort of thing. It is a signal there is something very much awry in the moral compass of those involved.
“(Ms Kendrigan’s) disability made it that much more difficult for her to defend herself.”
The court heard Ms Kendrigan was told by one of the group, “Hope you die you slut”, before she was thrown off the bridge.
Court documents showed Ms Kendrigan managed to swim to the river bank where she raised the attention of people nearby. She suffered severe injuries, including stab wounds, burns to her hands from cigarette butts, extensive bruising to her face and back pain.
Leuthwaite and Brown will be sentenced at Penrith District Court on February 13. The juveniles will return to court on April 9.