A TERRIFIED young woman was strangled with a dog chain – and was forced to eat dog biscuits – after being kept prisoner during sadistic "gang" torture by three menacing bullies.
She was "petrified" during the chilling ordeal and desperately begged to be released, but was threatened that she would be "hunted down" and murdered if she dared to tell the police, a court heard.
She had been "lured in to a trap" before the "ugly, humiliating, abusive, frightening" incident.
Sabrina Tate, 34, who now lives at Wold View Caravan Park, Binbrook, and Emma Winterbottom, 19, formerly of Lydford Road, Immingham, admitted assaulting Gemma Freeman, causing actual bodily harm, in Grimsby on June 8 last year.
Tate's husband, John Tate, 31, also of Wold View Caravan Park, admitted affray and Winterbottom also admitted perverting the course of justice in Cleethorpes between June 8 and October 7 last year.
Mark Kendall, prosecuting, told Grimsby Crown Court that Sabrina Tate assaulted Miss Freeman, now 24, after going round to her flat.
Miss Freeman begged to be allowed to go home but John Tate warned her: "You'd better not tell the cops about anything that's happened here tonight or I'll hunt you down – and I mean murder."
She was shaking with fear but Sabrina Tate told her: "I haven't finished with you yet."
Winterbottom pulled her into the kitchen, shoved a dog chain around her neck and squeezed tighter and tighter.
Winterbottom told her: "Get on your knees" and showed her dog biscuits and a bowl. She told Miss Freeman: "Eat the biscuits or I'll stick your head in the mop bucket."
She ordered her to put a dog biscuit in her mouth and she did so but quickly spat it out. Miss Freeman was "petrified" but Sabrina Tate grabbed hold of her and pinned her against a wall.
She warned her: "If you tell the police, I will come and find you."
Miss Freeman, who has learning difficulties, was allowed to leave after an ordeal lasting more than an hour and told her parents what had happened.
Winterbottom later asked a potential witness, Donna Major: "Will you lie for me?" She gave her a piece of paper and told her: "If the police get in touch with you, tell them this. Just do it for me." She later telephoned and texted her, asking to meet her.
Recorder Taryn Turner told the trio: "This was deliberate targeting of a vulnerable victim. It was gang violence really.
"What you did to this young woman that night was quite breathtakingly despicable."
Miss Freeman was contacted by Sabrina Tate and thought she was going to have a "girlie night".
"When she got to your flat, the atmosphere changed very markedly," said Recorder Turner. "She was effectively imprisoned in that flat while you meted out that punishment on her.
"She was begging to be set free.
"It was a most ugly, humiliating, abusive, frightening incident. She was the victim of a serious, unpleasant and sustained assault upon her."
Miss Freeman suffered injuries to her face and neck.
Sabrina Tate was jailed for 18 months and John Tate, formerly of Elsenham Road, Grimsby, was locked up for a year. Winterbottom, now living in Gainsborough, was given a one-year suspended custodial sentence and an 18-month supervision order.
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