She was tied to a chair, hit with a bat and had her eyebrows shaved off after the group forced her into a car and took her to a western Sydney house. Leuthwaite cut off Ms Kendrigan's ponytail while Brown stabbed her in the leg. She also had a sock soaked in cleaning fluid shoved in her mouth and a cigarette stubbed out on her hand. Leuthwaite was sentenced to a minimum of five years in prison, while Brown will serve at least four years behind bars. "Gratuitous cruelty was involved in this offence," Judge Mark Buscombe told the Penrith District Court. Ms Kendrigan's phone was stolen after she desperately tried to call her father for help.

She was later bundled back into the car and driven to Windsor Bridge, where she was thrown into the Hawkesbury River. The then-19-year-old survived the fall, clinging to a pylon in the water before regaining the strength to dog paddle to shore. Kayla Kendrigan and members of her family were present for the sentencing. Credit:Nine News Leuthwaite filmed parts of the kidnapping and abuse and later boastfully sent them to a friend, the court was told. He also tried to sell Ms Kendrigan's phone at a brothel. "He said he'd been on a four-day bender using ice and hadn't slept in four days," Judge Buscombe said.

Brown and Leuthwaite have a young child together but were separated at the time of the kidnapping. 'I don't understand how I'm alive' Ms Kendrigan, who was born without a left lower arm, told A Current Affair she thought she was going to die on the night in question. "I don't understand how I'm alive." "What did I ever do to them?"

"I can't remember some of it," she said. "I blacked out and said "where am I? Where am I?" they said, 'don't act stupid you know where you are'." Ms Kendrigan, who is in her early 20s, said that after making her way to shore despite not being able to swim, she lay on the rocks on the side of the river until she recovered. Sentenced: Matthew Leuthwaite and Brooke Brown. "I'm just thinking, 'what do I do? What do I do?'... I just said to myself, 'push yourself." "I had stab wounds, they were burning, and I was just weak. I just laid in the water roughly five more minutes I just laid in the water and just kept kicking my legs. When I got to land, I just laid on the rocks until I could get some sort of strength."

Ms Kendrigan said she still has nightmares about the ordeal, particularly being thrown off the bridge, and thinks she will continue to have bad dreams for the rest of her life. "I think it's stuck with me," she said, saying she often wakes up in tears and sweats. Ms Kendrigan's father said he was not happy and was expecting "a lot more" jail time for her attackers. "Why would you give someone that tried killing me a very, very short sentencing?" Ms Kendrigan said. She said that she just wants to move on with her life and focus on finding a job.

"I can be happy, but I'm still hurting," she said. "I hope the nightmares go." AAP with staff reporter