A South Australian woman has been jailed for over six years after a violent, drug-fuelled assault on a man during a terrifying hostage ordeal in Kilkenny.
Angela Antartis, 26, pleaded guilty to false imprisonment and multiple assaults committed alongside her partner, Zoran Aligrudic, 44, in January 2023.
According to the Gold Coast Bulletin, the pair restrained and tortured the male victim — who had previously pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting a woman — over several hours in what Judge Rauf Soulio described as an act of “vigilante justice.”
“You taped his wrists together with duct tape… and taped him to the back of the chair,” Judge Soulio told Antartis during sentencing at the District Court on Thursday, May 29.
The court heard Antartis cut the man’s toes and forearm, exposing muscle tissue, while scratching the word “pedo” onto his back. Alongside Aligrudic, she also struck him with garden tools and took turns burning him with a flame from a deodorant can.
The ordeal ended with the man being forced to run naked from the property, underwear tied around his eyes, before receiving treatment in hospital for lacerations, bruises, and burns.
In his victim impact statement, the man described the attack as the “worst events of his 25 years of life”, saying it left him traumatised and suffering from anxiety and nightmares.
Aligrudic, who will be sentenced separately, also pleaded guilty to drug trafficking and firearm possession.
The court was told that Antartis’ methamphetamine addiction and traumatic childhood contributed to her offending.
Judge Soulio condemned the pair’s actions and said vigilante justice is dangerous and undermines the proper structures of dealing with offending in society.
Antartis, of Woodville North, was sentenced to six years and two months in prison, with a non-parole period of three years. Her sentence was backdated to 29 January 2024.
Source: Gold Coast Bulletin
