A Victorian woman who tortured a man with a pair of pliers during an ice-fuelled haze has been jailed for her "cruel and sadistic" rampage.
WARNING: This story contains graphic descriptions of violence.
Charmayne McEwen appeared on Friday in the County Court of Victoria where she was ordered to spend six-and-a-half years in prison over her part in the violent attacks, one of which she filmed.
Over the course of about 10 days in 2020, the 22-year-old and her associates mentally and physically tormented four victims in three separate attacks around Geelong.
McEwen pleaded guilty to 10 charges, including kidnapping, extortion and intentionally causing injury, but could be eligible for parole in just under three years with time served.
In sentencing her, Judge Elizabeth Brimer said that a strong message needed to be sent.
"Nor will the community tolerate individuals taking the law into their own hands and using violence, coercion and intimidation to punish or avenge grievances, real or imagined."
Victim suffered lasting injuries
On May 31, 2020, McEwen and an accomplice lured their first victim to a garage at Leopold, in Geelong, and jumped him.
The pair knocked the man to the ground, told him they were going to "play some games", duct taped his head and then hog-tied him.
They then told the man that if he could keep quiet for two minutes he would be freed.
"The fact that you and your co-offender made a game out of tormenting [the victim], telling him not to make noise for two minutes then hitting him so he would make noise and restart the timer, was cruel and sadistic," Judge Brimer said.
The court heard that the pair did this 15 times before they stopped.
McEwen and her accomplice also tortured the man with cable-ties, told him off for bleeding onto the floor of the garage and claimed that the last person they tortured had become like a "trained dog".
Parts of the graphic episode were captured on video.
The pair later put the man in the back of his own car and left him on the side of the road before he managed to break his bonds and call for help at a nearby petrol station.
The court heard that the man has lasting reminders of the incident.
Children at home during one attack
A few days later on June 9, McEwen and the same associate went to another man's house at Thomson, in Geelong, where they robbed and attacked him.
The court heard that McEwen, who believed the second victim had sexually assaulted someone she knew, stabbed the man in the thigh.
The day after that, McEwen and three associates falsely imprisoned and robbed a man and a woman at their home at Charlemont, also in Geelong, in the mistaken belief they had cash and drugs.
Three of the couple's children were home at the time.
The court heard McEwen demanded car keys before she threatened to slash the woman's throat.
She later gave the woman her bank details and forced the victim to transfer $2,000 into her account with the reference "Girls weekend away".
McEwen was arrested more than two months later behind the wheel of a white BMW she stole that night, and made full admissions to investigators.
The court heard that the 22-year-old had suffered "horrific abuse" at the hands of an ex-boyfriend and has post-traumatic stress.
"With respect to the first incident, you said that you liked the idea that it was a girl beating up a guy who had been violent towards women and that while he deserved it, we should not have done it," Judge Brimer said.
