Judge locks up sadistic teenage pair

Daniel Grace and his girlfriend Shauna Smith told their victim, then aged 16, he needed to "learn some respect", Leeds Crown Court heard yesterday.

Ordering both Grace, now 19, and Smith, 17, to be detained indefinitely for public protection, Judge James Spencer QC said it was a "prolonged, callous, sadistic episode". He added: "The nature of that period when you were attacking him is not only alarming for what happened, it is alarming for the future, because if you are capable of that kind of violence on one occasion, there is the significant risk you are likely to do it again.

"You perpetrated acts of violence on him which were appalling. You tied him up, you stabbed him, deliberately sawed his tendons so one was completely severed, you hit him on the head knocking him down into unconsciousness, you put in him in a sleeping bag and left him.

"It was dreadful and it was a mercy that he was not even more severely injured, although it has to be said he was seriously enough, both physically and emotionally."

Ordering that both serve a minimum of three years, minus time on remand, before they can be considered for parole, he warned they would only be released when considered safe.

Grace and Smith, then of School Crescent, Dewsbury Moor, both admitted false imprisonment and wounding with intent on June 14 last year.

Peter Moulson, prosecuting, said their victim was looking for a friend in Dewsbury and ended up at the flat where the couple lived.

Initially there was no problem as they had a conversation with him, but after the pair began to take cannabis and mephedrone they turned on him and accused him wrongly of stealing some of their property.

In an attack which lasted up to 30 minutes, they both began assaulting him, punching him in the face, the force knocking him to the floor. It was then they told him he needed to learned some respect.

They tied the teenager's hands and legs together with belts before he was struck to the head three or four times with a hacksaw and stabbed in the left thigh with a kitchen knife.

His head was also stamped on leaving him drifting in and out consciousness as the attack continued.

At one stage, he remembered Smith holding up his feet and Grace starting to cut his Achilles tendons on both ankles, one was later found to be completely severed.

Mr Moulson said the teenager was also struck to the head with a screwdriver, hit on his ribs with a crowbar and had hot wax poured on him, before a sock was forced into his mouth and secured with tape.

His tormentors also threatened to pour acid on him to kill him before putting him in a sleeping bag, which they bound with wire to prevent him moving.

He again lost consciousness, but when he came round realised other people were in the flat and managed to get them to release him.

He was able to make his way outside where he sought help and an ambulance was called.

He had to have casts on both legs, needed a wheelchair for some weeks and six months of physiotherapy and will have some permanent scars. He has also suffered nightmares and a loss of self-confidence since the attack.

Both attackers had previous convictions for violence.

Robin Frieze, for Grace, said although immature, he appreciated the offences were wicked and felt genuine remorse for his actions. The "pernicious influence" of the drug known as M-cat, had played a part in what happened.

Andrew Dallas, for Smith, said she too was still young and capable of turning her life around, and added: "She has a desire to change."