Prison inmate charged over woman’s alleged kidnapping, drugging and sexual assault in Epping
Police have charged a prison inmate after a woman was allegedly bundled into a car, drugged and sexually assaulted in Sydney’s northwest.
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Police have charged a prison inmate after a woman was allegedly bundled into a car, drugged and sexually assaulted in Sydney’s northwest.
Officers were called to Epping on April 20 following reports a woman had been kidnapped.
Police arrived and were told a woman had been forced into a Toyota Camry by a group of unknown men before the vehicle left the scene.
Detectives from the State Crime Command’s Robbery and Serious Crime Squad established Strike Force Held to investigate the incident.
The following day, detectives located the 36-year-old woman at a different address in Sydney’s west, where she told police she had been allegedly drugged and sexually assaulted.
Strike force detectives immediately took the woman to hospital for treatment.
Following an investigation, detectives extradited a 29-year-old man from Victoria over the incident. He remains before the court.
Following further investigations, strike force detectives arrested 37-year-old Benjamin Kennedy at Silverwater jail on Monday and charged him with take/detain in company with intent to ransom occasion aggravated bodily harm, assault person intend criminal activity of criminal group, aggravated sexual assault in company and deprive liberty, use intoxicating substance to commit indictable offence, intentionally record intimate image without consent and threaten to distribute intimate image without consent.
Kennedy was refused bail to appear before Parramatta Local Court on Tuesday, where
where he did not apply for bail and it was formally refused.
The case was adjourned for further mention on August 8.
Investigations under Strike Force Held continue.
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