A bruised and terrified teenager has broken her silence in a moving TV interview after she was allegedly kidnapped, tortured for hours and eventually thrown off a bridge in a horrific attack in Sydney’s west.
Kayla Kendrigan, 19, a NSW girl who was born without her left hand and has learning difficulties, appeared on Channel 9’s A Current Affair – set to air on Tuesday night – to relive her alleged ordeal in full detail.
Shocking footage, which aired in a teaser for the show, shows the moment a girl – allegedly Kayla – screamed for her dad and cried out in a desperate plea for help.
She later reveals extensive injuries on camera including bruising, an alleged stab wound, burns and chunks of her hair missing where police claim it was hacked off.
Kayla has reportedly told police she was taken and pushed into the boot of a car by a group of people in Ambarvale at 8.30pm last Saturday before being driven to Whalan, tied up, tortured for six hours and eventually pushed off the Windsor Bridge into the Hawkesbury River the morning after.
https://twitter.com/ACurrentAffair9/status/1046693705527242755
“That night, I just thought I was not going to survive,” she says in the short teaser clip. “I was not going to see anyone anymore, ever again.”
Kayla’s emotional parents also appeared in the interview. As footage allegedly shows Kayla screaming for her dad, he appears on camera and fights back tears, saying: “Hearing that screaming and crying and calling for me…” before her mum adds: “All you want to do as a parent is take care of your child and make sure they’re safe.”
Police reportedly allege that Kayla was tied up with an iPhone cord before being beaten with a bat, stabbed, and burned. Footage, allegedly of Kayla herself, shows a woman tied to a chair as a group surround her.
“This is the gronk that wants to call people dogs, now she’s tied up in a room like a c***,” one of the group members is heard saying.
According to the Channel 9 show, four people – 19-year-old Brooke Browne, 22-year-old Matthew Leuthwaite, a 16-year-old boy and a 17-year-old girl – have now been charged with attempted murder and other offences over the alleged incident.
While Browne and Leuthwaite were refused bail in Penrith Local Court last week, they will appear in the same court next month. The 17-year-old girl and the 16-year-old boy were refused bail and will appear in a children’s court.
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