A young man died tragically after jumping from a fourth-floor balcony while trying to escape his violent captors.
19-year-old Cian English was an Irish teen who was ambushed by three men while staying at View Pacific resort at Surfers Paradise in Queensland, Australia, back in 2020.
According to the reports, the boy checked into a holiday apartment with his friends while looking forward to spending the weekend partying and enjoying the beach.
While staying in their room, English and his group began talking to three men – Jason Ryan Knowles, 25, Lachlan Paul Soper-Lagas, 21, and Hayden Paul Kratzmann, 23 – who were staying in the apartment directly above English.
After talking for a while, English and his friend were invited by the other group to join them. The latter later offered a series of drugs to the two teens
Some time into their joint night party, the other group accused English and his friend of stealing their drugs after an associate of Kratzmann took them for himself.
Infuriated by the turn of events, Kratzmann, Soper-Lagas, and Knowles went on to keep their visitors captive and torture them both mentally and physically for more than an hour.
In an attempt to save himself, English managed to escape his captors briefly and reach the balcony from which he jumped rather than risk getting captured and assaulted again.
Unfortunately, the teen died in the fall. His captors then packed up their bags and fled the scene before calling the first responders saying they saw someone lying on the ground in the area.
In the victims’ statement, Cian’s father, Vincent, spoke out and said he is haunted every day by what had happened to his son.
“No one should ever have to do this, there are no words that we can explain that we’ve gone through for the rest of our lives,” he said.
“They’ve taken our son away, taken away his future and darkened the future of those of those who loved and adored him. We’ll never see him get married, never get to experience his children who could have been anything.
“He was so gifted in sports and full of life no matter what he tried to, he wasn’t afraid of a challenge. He was a magnet, he drew people to him, he was incredible know matter what and helped people.”
The boy’s mother, Siobhan, added: “The harrowing pain and haunting nightmares of seeing my beautiful boy broken and covered in bandages is an image that will never leave my mind. An entire generation has been altered forever.”
The three men involved in Cian’s death have since been arrested and charged with manslaughter as part of a plea deal that saw them escape murder charges. They are set to be convicted today.