A woman who was held hostage and tortured in a Mount Hutton shed has described the "hell on Earth" she has been living through each day since the 24-hour ordeal.
Kyna McAuley's victim told Newcastle District Court on Monday that she continued to re-live the attacks that took place in the Kestrel Avenue shed - describing the "pure terror and fear for my life".
She said she suffered agoraphobia, night terrors and had become "a changed woman stuck in the past, being a slave to memories". She said the ongoing effects were "hell on Earth in my head, my dreams - groundhog day".
"I still remember the fear, the pain, my pleading with God," the young woman said in a Victim Impact Statement.
"The past two and a half years have been an uphill battle I never expected to be fighting.
"I learnt the true meaning of fear ... what it felt like to be truly scared."
McAuley was found guilty of detaining and torturing the young woman, and interfering with a witness, at a three-week trial in June.
The jury accepted that the now 42-year-old detained the victim in May, 2021, after the young woman fell asleep at the wheel of a car and crashed while McAuley's young daughter was in the back seat.
The child was not injured and the car had only minor damage.
The trial heard that McAuley took the young woman hostage later that day, during which time the victim was hit in the head with what she thought was a hammer, had her teeth knocked out, was burnt with a cigarette and had boiling water poured over her head.
The jury was told that, at one point, the young woman was pinned to the ground with her arm held out as McAuley started a grinder and threatened to cut off her arm.
The young woman, aged in her 20s, was eventually dumped in bushland at Eleebana and threatened with death if she told anyone what had taken place in the shed. She knocked on a nearby door for help.
McAuley will be sentenced on Friday.
