A COUPLE allegedly tied up and tortured a teenage employee because a Vietnamese fortune teller told them she stole from them, a Darwin court has heard.

Nhung Tri Tran and Trien Tran pleaded guilty to assaulting Leilani dos Santos on February 17, but not guilty yesterday to threatening to kill her and depriving her of her liberty, the Northern Territory News said.

Ms dos Santos, 18, told Darwin Magistrates Court the couple was like family to her until they believed she had stolen money from the barber shop she worked at with Ms Tran.

She was living with the couple as well, and said she returned home in the early hours of February 17 to have Mr Tran begin to strangle her before beating her unconscious.

Ms dos Santos, speaking from a "vulnerable witness" room, told the court she was tied up as the couple beat her and threatened to kill her, her boyfriend's family and her sister.

She said Ms Tran told her a Vietnamese fortune teller told the couple the person who had stolen the handbag was close to them, and was someone they loved.

Ms Tran also allegedly told Ms dos Santos they would cut off her fingers, but they loved her and would inject her with heroin, so she would not feel it.

Ms dos Santos said Mr Tran beat her in the back with a meat cleaver, threatened her with a samurai sword and burnt her arm with a cigarette.

Ms dos Santos said the couple had a Lady Gaga CD playing loudly. "I was screaming," she said. "I was hoping maybe somebody would break down the door and help me."

Ms Tran's lawyer Peter Elliott suggested to Ms dos Santos that she had embellished the story to get victim's compensation.

Ms dos Santos told the court she escaped the ties before dawn, but could not leave the Coconut Grove house because it was deadlocked and she had no keys.

She said she was allowed to leave about 8am, and after Ms Tran said they could pretend it never happened.

The hearing continues.



For local updates on this story, please visit the Northern Territory News.

Originally published as Fortune teller blamed for teen 'torture'