A couple accused of tying up and torturing a teenage employee told a Darwin court that they did so because a Vietnamese fortune teller told them that she was stealing.
dos Santos, 18, described a family-like atmosphere between herself and the Trans to the court, that got a little weird when she returned to the home that they shared in the early hours of the morning on February 17.
Ms. dos Santos said that on the fateful night Mr Tran began to strangle her and then beat her unconscious. She further claimed that after she regained consciousness the couple continued to beat her. She said that they also threatened to kill her, her boyfriend’s family and her sister. The catalyst for the alleged attack was the theft of a handbag belonging to someone that they “loved.” In her testimony dos Santos explained that Ms. Tran had explained that a Vietnamese fortune teller had told them that she was responsible for the theft.
In the course of the attack, Ms Tran allegedly told dos Santos that they would cut off her fingers, but that they loved her and would inject her with heroin so that she would not feel it. She said that Mr Tran “beat her in the back with a meat cleaver, threatened her with a samurai sword and burnt her arm with a cigarette”.
Ms dos Santos explained that she tried to draw attention to her plight:
I was screaming. I was hoping maybe somebody would break down the door and help me.
Perhaps her cries for help, failed to attract attention of neighbors or passers by because of the Lady Gaga CD that the couple played loudly throughout the ordeal.
dos Santos explained that she escape from the ties that the pair had used to bind her before dawn, but was unable to unlock the deadlocked door. At 8am on the same morning she was allowed to leave the house – she said that Ms Tran told her that they could pretend that it never happened.
Peter Elliot, lawyer for Ms Tran suggested that dos Santos’ story had been embellished in order to claim victim’s compensation. [NT News]
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