A man has been held in a warehouse and tortured with a gun and tools including a drill, hammers and a metal hook, in a brutal episode lasting three days, a Wollongong court has heard.

The man was knocked unconscious and his ear was partially ripped off with pliers in the course of the alleged ordeal in Oak Flats, a suburb of Shellharbour, on the NSW South Coast.

A police statement tendered to the court said he was held at gunpoint but, badly bloodied and incapacitated by his injuries, became no flight risk.

At one point he begged his tormentors, "Just kill me. I can't take it any more."

He emerged with ligature marks across his chest, arms and neck that would remain visible weeks later.