Violent burglars who tied up and tormented victim are caged

3:00pm Thursday 8th May 2008

Two burglars who tied up a young woman and held a 'Rambo-style' hunting knife to her throat have each been jailed for five years.

Martin Dias, 25 of Bowstead Court, Parkham Street, in Battersea, and Steffan Franklin, 27 of Lavender Sweep, Wandsworth, bound Amy Kewley with electric cable and stuck duct tape over her eyes and mouth after breaking into her Wandsworth flat on December 27 last year.

"I have developed a lot of anger as I feel those men ruined my life and I continue having panic attacks."

Amy Kewley

Kingston Crown Court heard Miss Kewley, who is in her twenties, was alone in bed at about 11.30pm when the pair, along with another man, forced their way into the apartment, which she shared with three other girls.

When she heard people in the flat Miss Kewley hid in the bathroom and managed to call the police who later caught the pair as they tried to flee the scene.

While she was in the bathroom one of the men broke down the door and entered the room.

He pulled off her bedclothes and dragged her by her hair, pulling her along the ground into the living room where two other black men were waiting.

She began screaming, telling the men to take everything but leave her alone, but they forced her on to the floor face down and told her to spread her legs.

One knife was held to her neck and a second, a hunting knife, to her body, while her ankles and hands were tied with electric cable.

Her face was trodden on and a blanket thrown over her head while the men ransacked the flat.

Before they left, they stuck duct tape over her eyes and mouth, and around her legs and hands, leaving her lying on the floor.

As they left the flat the police arrived and caught Franklin and Dias.

But the third man ran off and has never been caught or identified.

Miss Kewley was so traumatised by the attack she fled London and flew home to Australia.

In an impact statement read out in court Miss Kewley described how the violent incident had ruined her life.

She wrote: "I have developed a lot of anger as I feel those men ruined my life and I continue having panic attacks.

"I started counselling and have been prescribed Xanex to help me anxiety.

"My life has been thrown upside down. My flashbacks are starting to settle down but I still have nightmares about that night.

"Although I know I am very lucky not to have been killed, I know it will take a long time for me to get over what has happened."

Sentencing Dias and Franklin to five years each behind bars, Judge Nicholas Price QC said: "Burglary in my view is always serious, when someone is present it is more serious but then on top of that you subjected her to a terrifying experience."

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