Two women throttled and tortured vulnerable man in 'sickening' 24-hour after internet date

“Degrading”: Paige Springer and Tanisha Williams at Kingston crown court. Each was jailed for two years and four months
Tony Palmer
Tony Palmer5 July 2017
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Two women who spent 24 hours beating, throttling, and torturing a vulnerable man tricked into going on an internet date have each been jailed for more than two years.

Tanisha Williams, 20, a Greenwich University student, lured the 27-year-old victim to her flat in Battersea after meeting him through dating website TangoWire. When he arrived, she locked the door and told him: “You’re going to die today.”

Williams and her accomplice Paige Springer, a 20-year-old mother of two, then attacked the man with a metal pole, throttled him with the cord from a set of hair straighteners and threatened him with an electric drill.

The man, who has learning difficulties, was stripped naked and dunked in a cold bath during the ordeal, which lasted 24 hours, Kingston crown court heard. He was eventually released when someone visiting the flat saw his bloodied face and called 999.

Both Williams and Springer pleaded guilty to causing actual bodily harm during the attack on December 4, 2015. “It is a sickening case,” said Judge Timothy Lamb QC yesterday, jailing the women for two years and four months each.

“I cannot think of any more appropriate words than ‘gratuitous degradation’. Twenty-four hours subjecting him to fear and violence.”

Prosecutor Gavin Pottinger said the victim, who lives in supported housing and has a care worker, suffered nightmares and was afraid to leave his home. “He thought Miss Williams was in a relationship with him, but when he arrived she locked the door behind him and said, ‘You’re going to die today’,” he told the court.

“He could hear Miss Williams on the phone to friends saying she was going to kill someone and he was hit by her with a pole that caused bleeding and loss of consciousness.

“Further threats were made and he was dragged from the lounge to the bathroom by Miss Williams, stripped and made to get into the bath and remained there until he felt cold. His head was pushed under the water and an electric drill was also taken into the bathroom and brandished by Miss Williams, who kept turning it on and off, revving it. He was throttled with the electrical cord of some hair straighteners by Miss Williams.”

Mr Pottinger said the victim banged on the walls of the flat in a bid to raise the alarm, but was then threatened with a knife by Springer, who told him: “If you move you’re going to get stabbed.”

Both women repeatedly punched, kicked and slapped the man. Springer, who lives in Balham, tried to hit him on the head with a hammer, saying: “I want to kill him, I want to hit him.”

Dan Darnbrough, for Williams, said she “deeply regrets” the attack, adding that it was fuelled by alcohol, cannabis and anti-depressants which “turned her into a zombie”.

Judge Lamb also imposed a restraining order, banning the two women from contacting the victim for 10 years.

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