A cognitively-impaired man was cable-tied to a chair, tortured and told he was going to die for hours before tactical police stormed the location where he was being held captive, a court has heard.
On Thursday, two “heavies” linked to the drug-syndicate faced the Victorian County Court, where they admitted to their roles in the kidnapping and torture of three men.
Richard Tuckerman, 23, and Darren ‘Big Daz’ Whittaker, 41, the court heard, were associated through their drug-use to the syndicate and served as “stand-over men”.
Tuckerman pleaded guilty to intentionally causing serious injury and bail offences, while Whittaker pleaded guilty to three counts of false imprisonment, assault, extortion and two counts of making threats to inflict injury.
Prosecutor Georgia McMaster told the court the offending began in April 2021, when an associate of the group Bradley Schmitt, 21, was interviewed by police for an unrelated matter.
The court heard that after the interview, he was approached by Tuckerman who wanted to see the transcripts of his police interview and handed them over.
About a week later, Mr Schmitt received a text message from Tuckerman saying he had to come over and “sort out what happened with the police”.
The court heard he arrived at Tuckerman’s Cranbourne home shortly after midnight, where he was bashed by a group of people, stripped naked, and tortured for about six hours.
Mr Schmitt was burnt, forced to brand himself with a coat hanger twisted to resemble a penis, and forced to drink what could have been a lethal dose of GHB.
He was made to clean up his blood before he was dropped home where his parents found him unresponsive.
Tuckerman, whose only role in the incident was striking Mr Schmitt with a metal pole and videoing the attack, later told police he was “disgusted” with his behaviour.
Tuckerman was arrested in June but skipped bail and flew to Queensland before he was arrested and extradited back to Melbourne in October the same year.
The court heard Whittaker, in June, lured a man “associated with the offenders”, Andrew McFarlane, 31, to an address in Taylors Lakes to “look at product”.
He was immediately attacked with a gas bottle, bashed, branded and stabbed over the court of the evening while Whittaker sat watching on a couch.
Parts of the attack were recorded, Ms McMaster said, with Mr McFarlane forced to clean up his blood which had spilt over the “floor and walls”.
He was forced to drink GHB before Whittaker drove him home.
In the car Mr McFarlane called Whittaker a “dog”, saying he knew he’d been paid 3L of “juice” to set him up and was punched before being dumped in Dandenong.
Ms McMaster said, in another incident, Whittaker forced cognitively impaired man Joshua Morrison, 27, into a toolbox attached to his car while carrying a shotgun.
Mr Morrison, she said, had been briefly staying at Whittaker’s girlfriend’s home before he was “evicted” in mid-May.
He drove him to a factory rented by a co-accused in Oakleigh, where the court heard the co-accused assaulted Mr Morrison and told him he had two weeks to pay up $14,000.
“He felt he had to agree or would continue to be assaulted,” Ms McMaster said.
Later, on August 7, Whittaker picked up Mr Morrison and dropped him off at the home of the same co-accused, where he was cable-tied to a chair and tortured.
“When they make it difficult it's more fun,” the co-accused was said to have texted Whittaker before police entered the building about 1am on August 8.
Mr Morrison was found with a drill injury to his chest, burns and a significant head injury.
In court, his mother Kym said the “sadistic and horrendous actions” had destroyed her son.
“I really struggle with how anyone could be so cruel,” she said.
“The scars might have healed but the impacts will never.”
None of the victims were accused of involvement with the drug syndicate.
Judge Scott Johns said that while he couldn’t sentence Whittaker and Tuckerman for the violence perpetrated against these three men for others, he would have to view their offending within the “setting”.
“It's clear the accused aren’t at the top of the hierarchy,” he said.
“But this is ongoing and horrific. This is torture mentioned throughout the summary at various stages.”
Both men will be sentenced at a later date.
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