Girl, 17, made to act like dog by vicious gang

A TEENAGE torture victim from South Yorkshire has told how she was made to act like a dog in an eight-hour ordeal, during which she considered jumping from an eighth floor window to escape her sadistic abusers.
Summer Gregg was tortured by three people she considered friends for over eight hours. The trio were sentenced to five years each at Crown Court.Summer Gregg was tortured by three people she considered friends for over eight hours. The trio were sentenced to five years each at Crown Court.
Summer Gregg was tortured by three people she considered friends for over eight hours. The trio were sentenced to five years each at Crown Court.

Summer Gregg, who was 17 at the time, says she believed she was about to die at the hands of her attackers.

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She said: “I didn’t think I was going to make it out of the flat alive and thought maybe jumping out of the window would either kill me or save me – but at that point I began to think it was my only way out.”

Summer GreggSummer Gregg
Summer Gregg

The teenager was subjected to an appalling attack for more than eight-and-a-half hours during which she was beaten with a metal chain and piece of wood, repeatedly kicked, punched and slapped and made to ‘act like a dog’ by three thugs she believed were her friends.

The trio – all locked up by a judge at Sheffield Crown Court for the ‘prolonged and degrading attack’ – even spat and urinated on Summer as she begged to be allowed to leave during the horrific ordeal.

Judge Julian Goose branded their attack ‘an appalling episode of cruel and violent behaviour to a vulnerable woman’.

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Summer’s night of torture began when she called at the Doncaster town centre flat of her ‘friend’ Jay Blades in the hope of staying overnight because she was worried it was too late to return to her parents’ home.

Summer Gregg was tortured for over eight hours by three people she thought were her friends.Summer Gregg was tortured for over eight hours by three people she thought were her friends.
Summer Gregg was tortured for over eight hours by three people she thought were her friends.

Blades, 20, as in the flat with James Canning, also 20, and 21-year-old Amy Gaines.

Former Don Valley Academy pupil Summer, now 18, said she considered Amy a friend and thought Jay was be a ‘nice guy’ – but said she sensed ‘something was wrong’ almost as soon as she entered the flat.

“My instinct was saying this isn’t right, but I know them so thought it would probably be okay,” she said.

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Before long, Summer says the trio began ‘plotting’ and were sending messages to one another via their mobile phones.

James CanningJames Canning
James Canning

They began telling her her boyfriend had been cheating on her and became ‘aggressive’ when she refused to believe them.

Summer said she began to feel threatened and decided she needed to leave the flat for her own safety – but was prevented from doing so.

“I started saying I wanted to go home and tried to leave, but Amy stopped me and blocked the door and said that because she was a mother she couldn’t let me leave at that time in the morning.

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“She started smacking me around and pushing me into the wall and started saying ‘it’s me being a good mother’.”

Jay BladesJay Blades
Jay Blades

Summer says it was at that point the sadistic torture began.

“They were kicking me, punching me slapping me and shouting things at me. At one point Jay had one of those motorbike chains and he started hitting me with it,” she said.

“I kept thinking what have I done to make them change? What have I done to make them want to hurt me that bad?

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“Jay started doing martial arts moves and said it had been his birthday wish to try them out so got the others to film it.

“I wasn’t allowed to sit on the sofa because they said they didn’t want to catch anything from me and told me to get on all fours and act like the dog I am.

“I was so terrified, I kept thinking they’re not going to let me live.

Amy GainesAmy Gaines
Amy Gaines

“James started weeing on me all in my hair. I begged them to stop it all but they just didn’t care.

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“My eye had got all swollen up from where they had been punching me, and they started squirting lemon juice in it.”

But the terrified teen revealed her most terrifying moment came when she heard the trio discussing how they wanted to kill her.

“They were talking about killing me and then getting a van and abandoning it with my body in it in the middle of nowhere or maybe driving it into the river where no-one would ever find me.”

The horrendous ordeal was only brought to an end when a fourth friend – who she was told was coming to the property to ‘finish her off’ – decided to phone an ambulance instead.

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Despite trying to force Summer to tell the police she was attacked in the street and initially denying charges of false imprisonment and wounding – all three eventually admitted to the offences and were locked up at Sheffield Crown Court.

Gaines, of Thrybergh Court, Denaby, and Canning, of Plantation Close, Askern, were sentenced to five years in a Young Offenders’ Institution.

Blades, of St James Street, Doncaster, was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in a Young Offenders’ Institution.

Summer said she was relieved the trio have been put behind bars – but said her ordeal was far from over for her.

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She revealed: “I’m terrified every day, because what happened keeps going through my mind. I get angry very quickly now and keep having arguments with my boyfriend because of it.

“Every time I look down at my legs and see the scars from where they hit me I think of it. The same with the cyst in my eye that I got in the attack which the doctors say could make me blind if it gets bigger.

“I think they should have got longer, because they could be out in two-and-a-half years, which just isn’t enough for what they’ve done to me.

“I also think they should have gone to an adult prison because they were adults when they did it.”