Only this wasn't from the pages of a Hollywood script. It was real, and it happened in Woonona.

Police, responding to reports of a disturbance at a home on Popes Road one morning last October, discovered Mandy Fatima Matavesi sitting quietly in a chair in the lounge room. Her clothing and shoes were covered in blood and the house around her looked like it had been ransacked.

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Meanwhile, her victim had barged through the front door as soon as police opened it, collapsing into the arms of those officers with all the relief of a woman who only moments earlier thought she might die.

She would later reveal Matavesi had tied her up inside the unit and subjected her to hours of horror, pain and torture in a harrowing, three-hour ordeal seemingly without rhyme or reason.

The woman said Matavesi tied her up with sticky tape, bashed her with lamps and a hammer and twice tried to choke her using an electrical cord, all the while demanding the victim give her $50,000.

The victim told Wollongong District Court on Wednesday that the attack had left her with long-standing physical and mental scars.

"Being bashed around the head so many times and choked has left me with no short-term memory," she said.

"I forget everything from moment to moment. I miss appointments, meetings with friends and sometime forget what I'm doing around the house."

The woman said she suffered from nightmares, was scared to leave her home and no longer trusted people.

"I don't go out anymore unless it's absolutely necessary," she said.

"I don't go anywhere alone. I always need someone to go with me or I just won't go.....I'm always scared, looking over my shoulder. I've had to move to feel safe again."

Matavesi was arrested and charged with a host of offences. She pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated kidnapping, choking, using an offensive weapon and property damage.

Judge Andrew Haesler sentenced Matavesi to five years and three months' jail, taking into account her history of "profound depravation" which had resulted in her suffering a significant amount of trauma and violence at the hands of others.

"I accept her background has left a mark," he said.

He set a three-year non-parole period, saying Matavesi would need an extended time on supervised parole to address drug and alcohol addictions and her mental health issues.

The two women had been neighbours for three years but their relatioship had at time been fractious.

The victim messaged Matavesi on the evening of October 24 last year, saying she had been away for a few days and suggesting they talk. She also said she had a present for Matavesi.

Matavesi picked up the present then returned to her own home a few doors down from the victim.

When Matavesi didn't return, the victim went to check she was okay. She found Matavesi passed out on the floor.

The woman checked Matavesi's pulse, then shook her on the shoulder.

Matavesi woke up, punched the victim between her eyes, then followed her back to her unit and closed the screen door behind them.

Matavesi accused the woman of sleeping with her boyfriend, which the woman denied. However, Matavesi again hit the victim, before telling her "I'm going to kill you tonight, you're going to sign all you money over to me. You're going to transfer $50k into my account now".

Matavesi then tied the woman up with sticky tape, wrapping the tape around the victim's throat and putting it over her mouth so she couldn't breath.

"I'm going to kill you tonight, you're going to sign all your money over to me," Matavesi repeated.

She then bit the victim on the lip and tongue, causing her mouth to bleed, before grabbing a hammer from the dining area and hitting the victim in the head.

Matavesi then wrapped the electrical cord of a salt lamp around the victim's neck, before switching to another lamp and hitting the woman in the head.

The victim managed to remove the sticky tape from her mouth and screaming for help.

Police arrived moments later and Matavesi said "it's the f--king cops, what are you going to do"

The woman said "it will be alright" and went to the door. She opened it and fell into the arms of the police officers.

They said the woman still had sticky tape around her neck, cuts and bruises on her face and arms and she was covered in blood.