Alleged kidnapping victim speaks out after ordeal that ended on Windsor Bridge
The teenage girl who was allegedly kidnapped, tortured and thrown off a bridge this month by a group of four young people has spoken out about her ordeal, saying she thought she would not survive: "I was not going to see anyone any more, ever again".
Sporting an olive-green bruise across one side of her face, Kayla Kendrigan, 19, told Nine's A Current Affair she was "proud" that she managed to keep going after being thrown into "freezing" water by her alleged attackers about 5am on Sunday, September 27.
In the preceding hours, she said they had tied her to a chair, kicked her, beaten her with a bat, burnt her with cigarettes, cut her hair off and stabbed her.
After being driven from the home where she was allegedly tortured for hours to the bridge in the boot of a car, drifting in and out of consciousness, Ms Kendrigan said she "woke up in shock" when the door was opened.
She said she begged to be let go but instead was pushed off the bridge, falling 20 metres to the water below.
Ms Kendrigan, who was born with only half her left arm, said she cannot swim. Despite that, along with her significant injuries and the cold water she was thrown into, she somehow made her way to the shore.
"Getting thrown in that water I felt the impact and all I could hear was just the beat of the water," she said.
"I was freezing. I was shaking. My whole body was frozen. The water felt like I got thrown into ice."
Her stab wounds were also burning, she said.
"I was trying to keep myself up. I laid on my back. I was just, like, 'what do I do? What do I do?' Land is about 5, 10 minute swim and I was just thinking I can't swim, nup.
"I just kept kicking my legs, kicking, kicking, kicking."
Eventually she made it to the land, but her ordeal was not over. She then had to walk for around 15 minutes until she found a house where she could ask for help.
It was during that final walk that Ms Kendrigan said she "felt like giving up. Just laying somewhere and giving up."
Instead, she told herself: "You survived in the water, go find a house and they will help you."
She found that house, and a kind occupant, and was taken to hospital in an ambulance.
Her parents, also speaking with A Current Affair, said they didn't recognise their daughter at the hospital. Her face was "like a balloon", her father said.
It's eating me away inside," he said. "Why, why, why? She's a beautiful kid, she wouldn’t hurt anybody at all. She just wants to be loved."
The four people charged with Ms Kendrigan's kidnapping and attempted murder include two minors, a 16-year-old boy and 17-year-old girl. Nineteen-year-old Brooke Brown and 22-year-old Matthew Leuthwaite were also charged.
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