Aaron Bunch Journalist with Australian Associated Press | Collection of published work | + 61 484 008 119 | abunch@aap.com.au

Aaron Bunch
Man jailed over mortar and pestle torture

A man who did nothing to help a woman bashed, bound and gagged during a night of torture over a drug debt has been jailed in Queensland.

January 30, 2020

A Brisbane woman was bashed with a mortar and pestle and threatened with death before being bound and gagged during a night of torture over a $1200 drug debt.

Bradley James Rowe, 47, didn’t inflict the suffering on the woman in July 2018 but admits he did nothing to stop Tammy Maree White as she did.

Their victim eventually escaped the home she shared with Rowe in Seventeen Mile Rocks to a neighbour, who called the police.

But not before White, then 42,  kicked her in the head, shoved a cloth down her throat and forced her to kneel for hours on end in a bath while bound with an electrical cable.

During the ordeal, White also smashed the woman in the head with a granite mortar and pestle and repeatedly struck her as she interrogated her about the money.

She also wrapped a hair straightener power cord around the woman’s neck and tightened it until she struggled to breathe before mocking her as she painted her victim’s face with makeup.

“The (woman) felt as though she was going to be killed,” prosecutor Chontelle Farnsworth said on Thursday.

“(She) saw (Rowe) walk down the hall and stop at the bathroom door to look at her

“She begged him at that time to call triple-zero but he just looked at her walked away,” she said.

Rowe returned later, throwing a blanket over the woman before switching off the light.

“(He) said this is what happens when you f**k with drug money,” Ms Farnsworth said.

“(Rowe) deprived the (woman) of her personal liberty in circumstances that were clearly threatening.”

Defence lawyer Simon Lewis said his client was “guilty by inaction” when he was asked for help, which he was obliged to provide.

“It is serious offending … (but) I wouldn’t want Your Honour to think he was willing or indicated enthusiasm for this

“Quite frankly, he thought White had gone mad … but he had formed the view it was in relation to a drug debt and that it had nothing to do with him,” he said.

Rowe pleaded guilty to deprivation of liberty, weapons and drug offences.

He was sentenced in the Brisbane District Court on Thursday to 12 months’ imprisonment, suspended after five months.

White was jailed for four years after pleading guilty to torture and deprivation of liberty in May 2019.

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