A Sydney couple who attended a barber shop in Sydney’s west were attacked by two masked men who followed them out of the store, bundled them into the back of a car and drove them 200 kilometres to a remote location.
They were tied up and held captive for nearly two days as their captors made ransom demands of up to $5 million. The man had part of his finger severed before they managed to escape through rugged bushland.
Their parents then became the targets of threatening messages and a firebomb attack.
Spencer Street, Fairfield, near the scene of the couple’s abduction.Credit: Jessica Hromas
Step-brothers Sakeasi Rabitu Ilimotama and Esala Baka, both 26, have been jailed over the violent kidnapping, which began when the unsuspecting couple drove to Fairfield so the man could get a haircut.
The NSW District Court heard the pair had no known links to the offenders. Judge Sophia Beckett described the crime as a potential case of mistaken identity.
The day before the attack on January 18, 2023, Ilimotama and Baka, originally from Fiji, were seen driving in and out of a car park on Court Road, Fairfield, where they hid several bags containing items including a shovel, cable ties, gaffer tape and garden droppers.
Moments before the couple arrived at the barber shop, Baka had retrieved one of the bags and entered the store with Ilimotama, where they changed clothes.
The car park on Court Road, Fairfield. The owners of the property are not accused of any wrongdoing.Credit: Jessica Hromas
Staff told the couple the barber wasn’t there and the couple walked away. That’s when Ilimotama and Baka chased after them, having donned face coverings, and grabbed them as they screamed and tried to scale a nearby fence.
As shocked bystanders watched, they were shoved into the back of a stolen black SUV and warned to “co-operate … or your family will be involved”, Beckett said in her sentencing remarks.
The owners of the car park and barber shop are not accused of any wrongdoing.
Despite the victims’ protests that they had the wrong people, the couple were blindfolded and driven 200 kilometres north of Sydney to a remote shed near the coastal village of Swan Bay. Inside, they were told to hand over $500,000 for their release.
‘[The couple are] plagued by physical injuries, anxiety and nightmares.’
Victim impact statement
Two unknown men arrived, and one asked: “Whose finger they would cut off and how much they would pay to avoid it?”
Both victims offered themselves to spare the other. The man was struck three times and his middle finger was partially severed. When his partner cried out, she was hit and told “there were many bodies buried here”.
The couple’s eyes, mouths and noses were taped and the unknown men left.
After the assault, Ilimotama and Baka bandaged the man’s wound using a cable tie, then drove the couple to a house where they were tied to chairs. Ransom demands ranged from $500,000 to $5 million, and phone calls were heard with “the big man” who wanted half of their payment in cryptocurrency.
The hostages were forced to remain there overnight, but this was not the plan. Ilimotama and Baka expressed frustration that “they’d been effectively left to babysit” and feared they’d “get in trouble” if they left.
They threatened to pour fuel over their parents if they tried to call the police.
The woman was forced to hand over her father’s phone number, and he later received the message “we have scouts everywhere, watching every move”. The kidnappers warned that “others” were coming who “would not be so nice”.
Then Ilimotama and Baka left the blindfolded couple.
Taking their chance to escape, the pair managed to untie themselves and flee into rugged bushland. After an hour of walking, they found a rehabilitation centre, where staff called police, and they were taken to hospital.
The next day, the woman’s father received threatening messages about “things getting 10x worse” and a warning that “whilst they had not hurt the girl, they would start breaking ‘moral codes’ and that police were not to be contacted”.
“Otherwise attacks would commence at all angles … [the victim] has f---ed with Australia’s biggest and baddest crew,” Beckett read from one message.
Days later, Baka threw a petrol bomb at the south-west Sydney home of one of the victim’s parents. As it landed near the front door, neighbours rushed to help extinguish the flames. The next day, a note in the mailbox demanded: “1 mil sent to the bill account provided”.
The kidnappers detained the couple for 36 hours.Credit: NSW Police
Police found Baka’s fingerprints on the letterbox note. At the kidnapping site, they discovered the burnt-out remnants of the stolen SUV, both offenders’ DNA and fingerprints and “other evidence corroborating the victims’ account”.
The brothers were arrested in April 2023.
Victim impact statements outlined how the couple’s lives were “changed forever” and how they remained plagued by physical injuries, anxiety and nightmares. The parents described how they thought they and their children would die.
Beckett said the victims faced “an extreme level of terror” and would have been held for longer than 36 hours if they hadn’t escaped. While parts of the plan showed “some degree of forethought and professionalism”, others “seemed clumsy”, including the apparent lack of back-up.
The judge said the motive was clearly ransom, but “it is not known what, if any, involvement the victims or their family had with the criminal element, or if indeed it was simply a case of mistaken identity”.
While neither Ilimotama nor Baka were the apparent ringleaders, they were “essential and significantly involved”.
The judge found the brothers were not the leaders of the criminal enterprise but were essential.Credit: NSW Police
“The acts … included a violent apprehension of the victims as they went about in their community, restraining them, transporting them, blindfolding them and thereafter guiding them, taping them, shackling them and demanding funds from them and being present whilst others assaulted them,” she said, noting neither offender committed the physical assaults but witnessed them.
“The victims were taken and held at a remote and isolated and unfamiliar location, making it difficult for them to seek help ... Their escape required them to navigate heavy bushland before finding help, which must have been a very frightening experience indeed.”
Ilimotama was convicted of two counts of kidnapping in company with intent to ransom and occasion actual bodily harm, one count of being carried in a conveyance taken without the owner’s consent, and one count of participating in a criminal group. He was sentenced to seven years and six months’ jail, with a non-parole period of five years.
Baka was convicted of the same offences, plus damaging property by fire. He was sentenced to six years and eight months’ prison, with a non-parole period of four years.
Both received a 10 per cent sentence discount for pleading guilty after being committed to trial.
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