‘Out of control’ teen bailed to give birth ahead of bloody kidnapping trial

A teenager accused of a bloody kidnapping in Sydney has been bailed to give birth ahead of the trial.

A teen allegedly at the centre of a bloody and dramatic kidnapping will be released on bail days before she gives birth.

Latia Henderson, 19, and Kayley Ketley, 24, allegedly abducted Nisha Phillips from Claymore in Sydney’s south west in February 2020.

Ms Phillips was allegedly stabbed during the kidnapping and was only rescued from the boot of her own car when she managed to stick her hand out through a tail light on the Hume Highway.

Police allege Henderson, who was 14 weeks pregnant at the time, was driving Ms Phillips toward the infamous Belanglo State Forest after levelling threats against the detained woman.

Henderson asked the NSW Supreme Court to release the expectant mother on bail before she gives birth on August 31.

Crown prosecutors warned her criminal history showed she was “out of control” and willing to defy numerous court orders to commit further acts of violence.

Latia Henderson has been released on bail ahead of giving birth.

“If she remains in custody, bail refused, the baby will be removed from her following birth and placed into care (of Henderson’s grandmother),” Justice Stephen Campbell SC said on Friday.

The judge said the needs of a new mother and baby are “special in the social order of things” and was an important factor in his decision to release her on bail.

“I am of the view that given her good behaviour in custody and her apparent abstinence from substances in custody that she may have started to turn over a new leaf,” he said.

Charges of unlawful wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and detaining to gain an advantage causing bodily harm were dropped against Henderson earlier this month.

Instead, she faces the lesser charge of kidnap in company with serious indictable offence occasioning actual bodily harm, driving a vehicle without the owner’s consent and driving while unlicensed.

Henderson’s barrister told the court the young woman had a turbulent family life — she had lost a half-sibling as well as her close friend, Brayden Dillon, an innocent young man executed by a vicious criminal gang in 2017.

The barrister conceded the case against Henderson was strong but the judge said it was not his job to play the role of the jury.

He issued the mum-to-be a dire warning all the same.

“Ms Henderson must appreciate that, given the strength of the Crown case, she will stand trial and there must be a significant prospect she will be convicted,” he said.

Henderson looked down at her lap as the judge warned she would likely be locked up if she was found guilty.

Henderson must live with her grandmother and can only leave the home with her elderly relative for emergency reasons or for medical and legal appointments.

She cannot take drugs or drink and cannot be in contact with either her alleged accomplice or alleged victim.

The matter will return to Campbelltown Local Court on October 6.