Armed with gold bullets and an eight-inch knife, Abdel-Aziz Hussein Ali kidnapped a driving instructor in a plot to snatch a woman he had previously held hostage.
Nearly three weeks earlier, in March 2022, Ali forced the woman into his Brisbane home, covering her mouth as she started to scream “Help”, a court has been told.
He punched and hit the 20-year-old with his elbows, splitting her forehead.
Ali pulled the bleeding woman into the shower and turned the water on before threatening to knock her teeth out while holding her in a headlock.
The now 25-year-old then started crying and phoned his mother, speaking in Arabic and saying: “What have I done?”
For 19 days, Ali locked the woman inside the house and took her phone when he left.
He refused to let her go to hospital with paramedics two days after the assault when she complained of chest pains.
Ali told the woman she could leave but threatened her if she tried.
“On one occasion you said, ‘Call your mum to come and pick you up and I’ll snap your neck when she gets here’,” Brisbane District Court Judge Terry Gardiner said to Ali on Friday.
She escaped on April 15 when Ali went out.
The following day – armed with an eight-inch folding knife, grey tape and gold bullets – Ali asked for help from an instructor scheduled to give the woman a driving lesson.
Saying he had been betrayed by her, Ali’s plan was to hide in the car boot until the instructor pulled into a service station.
Then he would get out with the knife and tape the woman’s limbs and mouth.
Ali threatened the frightened instructor, who phoned his family from a bathroom after about half an hour and they called police.
Officers arrested Ali, who was in possession of four gold bullets, a dog lead and the woman’s phone.
The court heard he was using methamphetamine at the time of the offences but was taking part in drug rehabilitation programs in prison.
Ali pleaded guilty to four charges including kidnapping, assault and deprivation of liberty.
Judge Gardiner sentenced him to four years behind bars and ordered he be eligible to apply immediately for parole.
“I am satisfied that your release into the community is best determined by the Parole Board rather than me releasing you today.”
Ali has spent 406 days in jail since his arrest.