TWO men and a woman involved in imprisoning a naked party-goer in a taped-up wheelie bin, left in a wooded area, will soon be free from jail - despite only being sentenced yesterday.
Teri Christopher Bernard Lau (28) from Dunclug Park, Ballymena, 28-year old Roddy Patterson from Glendun Drive, Ballymena and 22-year old Paula Wilson, from Main Street, Cullybackey were sentenced to a total of nine years.
However, only half of their sentences are to be served in jail, with the remaining half spent on licence after they are released.
Due to time already served, all three will soon be released from prison.
Passing sentence, Judge Gordon Kerr QC said 22-year-old victim Adam Robinson had been left "highly traumatised" and suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder by the September 2013 ordeal designed to "punish, demean or humiliate him."
Lau and Patterson each admitted assaulting Mr Robinson occasioning him actual bodily harm, and of false imprisonment. Wilson - who at the time of the incident was in a relationship with Lau - admitted aiding and abetting false imprisonment.
Lau and Patterson were each handed three and a half year sentences. Wilson was given a two-year sentence.
Before Mr Robinson was discovered and rescued from the bin by a man walking his dog in Sentry Hill, he had been partying with all three defendants in Lau's Dunclug Park home.
All four were under the influence of drink and drugs and Mr Robinson was unable to tell police why he was naked or in the bin, but claimed he had been assaulted by Lau who also prevented him from getting out of the bin.
The court heard he was "deliberately put in the bin to degrade, humiliate or punish him for something that occurred at Lau's house at a party fuelled by drink and drugs".
The bin was then wedged against a tree, and it was prosecutors' case that if a dog had not alerted its owner to noise coming from the bin, Mr Robinson, who was treated in hospital for three days, may not have been rescued.
Judge Kerr said when he was freed he was naked, covered in sweat, extremely distressed and "clearly disorientated" and it is clear that Mr Robinson has suffered significantly.
The judge said he suffered sensory deprivation inside the bin, with "no idea why he was abandoned and how long he would be there".
There were also injuries either suffered by being punched or kicked, or from the movement of the bin.
Judge Kerr referrred to Patterson's bad record and said, despite credit for his guilty pleas, it was "inevitable" his role would be discovered.
Wilson admitted a lesser role and despite initially denying that she remained at the scene when the bin lid was taped down, she has since expressed remorse and described her behaviour as "disgraceful".
Lau, who instigated taping the bin lid down by buying the tape, and who suggested it was "funny" and a "prank", also had previous criminal convictions.
Mr Robinson was in the public gallery with his parents and brother.
