‘Worst pain ever’ - victim

The complainant in the Dome Valley kidnapping case says she was bound and kept in a basement for a day before overhearing her alleged captors plotting to kill her.

For the first time, in the High Court at Auckland yesterday, she outlined the alleged events that led to her being abandoned on the side of the road with critical head injuries.

The woman, now aged 20, is said to have been subjected to a hammer attack allegedly masterminded by a woman she says was a ‘‘really good friend’’ of hers.

She told the court that during attacks prior to the alleged attempt on her life, she felt the ‘‘worst pain she’d ever felt in her life’’ after allegedly being repeatedly Tasered, threatened with a knife, and burned with a pipe.

Julie-ann Torrance, Cameron Hakeke, Nicola Jones, Michelle Blom, and Wayne Blackett are all charged with varying roles over the attacks on the complainant in April and May 2016. The Crown says Jones masterminded both alleged attacks because she was incensed after suspecting her boyfriend was having an affair with the complainant.

Yesterday, the complainant, who can’t be named, said she had known Jones since she was 3 years old, and they had lived together off and on over the years. ’’We were pretty close. I thought of her as a really good friend.’’

In January last year the pair moved to Auckland together and began sex work, the complainant said. Jones introduced her to the defendants Torrance, Blom, and Hakeke, who was also known as Cinnamon.

The complainant said that late on the night of May 7, 2016, she was walking down Auckland’s Howe St, near Karangahape Rd, when she was allegedly confronted by Nicola Jones. She said Jones grabbed her by a fistful of hair and forced her into the back of a car which was already occupied by Michelle Blom, Jaclyn Keates, and Julie-ann Torrance. En route to a Kelston address, she said, she was repeatedly assaulted. The woman told jurors that on arrival at the Kelston address she was taken into the home’s basement where she was ordered to strip off. Toward the end of the day she said she heard a man speaking to her alleged captors, and said she heard him say: ‘‘Don’t worry, we’ll do it properly so you won’t get caught. They won’t even find the body.’’

The Crown alleges she was driven to Dome Valley, north Auckland, and the complainant told the court she was taken out of the truck before feeling a male’s hands around her neck, trying to break it. ’’The last thing I remember is getting a big hit to the back of the head.’’ She woke up in hospital about a week later.

The Crown alleges she was struck on the head seven times with a hammer, and medical experts earlier gave evidence that she had suffered critical head injuries.

The defendants have denied the following:

Nicola Jones: Threatening to kill, sexual violation, attempted murder, injuring with intent, assault with a Taser

Julie-ann Torrance: Injuring with intent, assault with a Taser, two counts of assault with scissors, assault with a cricket wicket, sexual violation, attempted murder

Cameron Hakeke: kidnapping, stealing a car, assault with a Taser, assault with scissors

Michelle Blom: Injuring with intent, kidnapping, assault with a cricket wicket, assault with scissors, sexual violation

Wayne Blackett: assault with a cricket wicket, assault with scissors, sexual violation.