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WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

MATTHEW Digby was tied up in chains, attacked with an angle grinder, then strangled to death. All because he was suspected of stealing a necklace.

And in a tragic twist, the man, whose charred body was found in a burned out car, didn’t steal the jewellery.

In 2012, two people were convicted for their role in the death of 35-year-old Mr Digby.

Richard James Walsh was convicted and sentenced to 28 years for the kidnap and murder of the Wollongong man.

Lauren Mae Batcheldor, 34, was convicted of murder and kidnap at the trial, but this week had her offences downgraded to take and detaining a person in company and being an accessory after the fact. She will find out today if her 24 year sentence will be reduced.

TERRIFYING ORDEAL

In January 2010, Batcheldor, from Albion Park Rail in the Illawarra, found out that Mr Digby had hocked her $2000 nine-carat solid gold necklace at a Wollongong pawn shop.

She enlisted the help of 21-year-old Dapto local Walsh to confront Mr Digby who she mistakenly thought had stolen the jewellery.

After initially heading to a house to find Mr Digby, Batcheldor and Walsh then arranged to meet him in a nearby park reports the Illawarra Mercury.

That’s when his horrific ordeal began.

Mr Digby was punched, dragged to a car and driven to Walsh’s garage in Dapto where he was tied up with dog chains. He was then asked what he would like for his “last drink” before being left alone to ponder his imminent fate. According to facts tendered to court, Batcheldor and Walsh smoked the drug ice before he went back into the garage to “speak to Matt and try and find out what he knows”.

The court heard Batcheldor did not accompany Walsh when he returned so what happened next is disputed.

Walsh claimed in his trial that Mr Digby had willingly accompanied him to the house and waited in the car while he fetched methamphetamine and cannabis for them to share. When he returned, he said he caught Mr Digby attempting to break into the glove compartment with a screwdriver which the victim then used to attack him.

Walsh said he tried to subdue Mr Digby with a “guillotine” headlock, which is when he claims he died.

‘UNTIL HE HEARD CRACKING’

But a witness at the trial questioned this version of events, saying Walsh became enraged when he re-entered the garage and found Mr Digby had partially wrestled himself free from the chains. At one point, the witness said an angle grinder had been sunk into Mr Digby’s leg to elicit information. Then, kicking him into unconsciousness, the witness claimed Walsh admitted to pulling on the dog chain around Mr Digby’s neck “until he heard cracking”. The Illawarra Mercury reports he kept hold of the chain for a full four minutes as the body continued to move.

Justice Geoffrey Bellew, who presided at the original trial, said while he didn’t agree with the crown’s submission that Mr Digby was strangled by Walsh he was satisfied that the victim died while being detained in a garage, as the result of a “deliberate act” by Walsh.

“One can only imagine the fear by which the deceased would have been beset in the final hours of his life,” Justice Bellew said.

CHARRED REMAINS

Early on the morning of January 25, 2010, a freight train driver passing Mount Murray in NSW’s Southern Highlands noticed a burning car.

Teeth and a cheekbone discovered inside the charred Mazda 626 were later identified as belonging to Mr Digby. Walsh latter admitted to chaining the victim’s body by the neck to the head rest of the front passenger seat, placing a tyre on the body and dousing it with petrol before setting it alight to dispose of Mr Digby’s remains.

Batcheldor’s role in the incident was less serious, said Justice Bellew at the time.

“She did, however, assist in other ways, including arranging the disposal of a bag containing the clothes worn by Walsh at the time he set alight to the vehicle,” he said during the original trial.

The whole sorry incident could have been avoided, said Justice Bellew, if Batcheldor had just called the police when the jewellery originally went missing.

“The end result serves as a stark reminder what can occur when people inappropriately choose to take the law into their own hands.”

At the original trial, Mr Digby’s grief-stricken father John said, “We live with the horror of Matt’s death every day. To lose a child is heartbreaking, but to know the circumstances in which he was killed is something that plays on our minds over and over.”

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