Adrian Kepa Hull and Kane Polglase strung up man, threatened to inject rat poison in brutal Swan Hill abduction

Two Swan Hill men were part of a group that abducted a man from a footy oval, beat him and threatened to inject him with rat poison, in a bid to force him to change a police statement.

Two of the Swan Hill men who took part in a kidnapping aimed at getting a man to change his police statement have been sentenced. Picture: istock

Two Swan Hill thugs kidnapped a man from a country football oval and threatened to inject him with a syringe filled with rat poison to force him to change a police statement, a court has heard.

Adrian Kepa Hull and Kane Polglase fronted the County Court in Melbourne for sentencing after pleading guilty to a string of charges over the savage 2023 abduction, which Judge Michael Bourke described as a “brutal ordeal”.

Hull brandished a weapon as he and Polglase, along with two others, snatched their victim from the Lake Boga oval in a bid to force him to change a police statement.

A firearm was used to intimidate the man during the incident, but was not fired during the ordeal.

Kepa Hull and Polglase were in a group of four people from Swan Hill who kidnapped the victim. Source: iStock / Getty Images

The victim was taken to a property where the violence escalated. The victim was bashed with a baseball bat and narrowly avoided being stabbed.

The court heard Kepa Hull told the victim he was going to gut him “like a fish” before attempting to stab him. The victim managed to fend off the attack, suffering a significant arm injury.

He was then strung up by an electrical cord slung over a door, as the group tried to hang him. At one stage, the group threatened to electrocute him while he stood under a running shower.

Things got even darker when the attackers threatened to inject the victim, first with a syringe filled with rat poison and later with what they claimed was a lethal dose of methamphetamine.

The court heard the group filled up two syringes, one with rat poison and one with a lethal dose of methamphetamine and threatened to inject the victim during the ordeal. Picture: Generic

The victim was repeatedly kicked and threatened with a knife during the ordeal, before being taken to a second location, where he finally escaped his attackers.

He later presented to the Swan Hill hospital emergency department with extensive bruising, swelling, lacerations and a stab wound to his forearm.

Judge Bourke spoke to the humiliation and cruel treatment by the accused toward the victim as he handed down his sentence.

Judge Michael Bourke called the offending “extravagantly brutal and cruel” as he handed down his sentence.

“This was very serious offending indeed, in an environment of a drug and criminal culture, and the victim was subjected to an extravagantly brutal and cruel ordeal,” Judge Bourke said.

Kepa Hull received a total effective sentence of six years and three months with a non parole period of four years. 704 days were reckoned as pre-sentence detention.

Polglase was given a total effective sentence of four years and five months with a non parole period of two years and five months with 726 days reckoned as pre-sentence detention.