THE BITCHES FROM HELL; I'll never forgive those animals for what they did.

The Bitches From Hell put helpless Barbara Gillen through 48 hours of sickening torture.

And last night, she said: "They were once my pals, but they became monsters. How could they do it?"

The Bitches, aged between 15 and 19, carried out their orgy of cruelty over a debt of just FORTY POUNDS.

Marie Davis and Joanne McCulloch, known as the "Fat Slags" had invited Barbara, 21, to share a flat. She moved out days later, owing pounds 40 in rent.

Three days before Christmas, McCulloch and Davis went looking for her. Barbara wasn't at her new home in Greenock's Woodstock Road, so they broke in and smashed everything inside.

When Barbara turned up, they grabbed her and took her to another flat.

"I was screaming and wondering what they were doing," she said. "They tightened their grip and told me to shut up."

At the flat, the pair gave the tiny brunette a brutal kicking. Her eyes were blacked and her nose broken. They rubbed her face in dog dirt.

Barbara's jacket was ripped off and set on fire, and her chain and ring were grabbed.

She was dragged round local houses and made to sing Christmas carols for money, then taken by taxi to McCulloch's house in Banff Road, Greenock.

There, the rest of the drunken, drugged-up gang joined in tormenting her. The Bitches were helped by Kenneth Woods, 27, a man they knew as "The Beast".

Barbara knew all of them, and had even counted them as friends. She was locked inside a freezing kitchen cupboard so small that her knees were forced up under her chin.

"There was no room to put my legs down," she said. "It was agony ."

Barbara was only brought out to be tortured.

The gang laughed as they beat and stabbed her, sometimes kicking her to the rhythm of rave music.

They stubbed cannabis joints out on her head and body, and shaved off her eyebrows.

She was put back in the cupboard, then the door was opened and a kettle of boiling water poured over her.

As she howled in pain, she was stabbed in the leg.

That night, more scalding water was poured over her as she sat in a cold bath.

Disinfectant was rubbed into her wounds.

Barbara was twice forced to drink urine. It was provided by Louise Campbell and a schoolgirl, who was just 14 at the time.

On one occasion, Julie Duffy mixed the urine in a pint tumbler with grease, turpentine, fish fingers and cigarette butts.

Duffy sprayed Barbara's hair with liquid gas, and Campbell set it alight. Chunks of charred hair fell from her head before the flames were doused.

The gang made Barbara get down on all fours, bark like a dog, and lick their boots. They'd cashed her pounds 73 Giro, using it to buy drink, drugs and food. They binged on cannabis and temazepam as they tortured her.

On the second day, the gang taunted Barbara constantly about how they were going to kill her.

She said: "Woods put a wet towel around my neck and tried to choke me. He said, `This is how it will feel when I slit your throat'."

Woods also hooked a long knife into the top buttonhole of Barbara's shirt and dragged her around the flat, threatening to cut her throat. Binliners were put on the floor to catch the blood.

Barbara added: "I was returned to the cupboard and heard the girls chanting: `Not long now, Barbara.'

"They kept this going for what seemed like hours. I had no idea of time but I knew it was getting dark and I had to escape.

"I screamed that I needed the toilet, and they eventually dragged me out of the cupboard and pushed me into the bathroom.

"When I was inside they started chanting again: `Your throat will be slit soon Barbara. Ha, ha."

"I knew then I was about to die. So I somehow pulled up the window and jumped out into the snow."

She fled barefoot, and begged for help at a nearby house. The woman who answered the door fainted when she saw her. Her head was grotesquely swollen and purple with bruising, and her skin was covered in scalds. As she was rushed to hospital she mumbled: "Don't let them get me."

When she saw photos of her injuries in court, she didn't recognise herself.

A doctor compared her wounds to those suffered by the victims of Bosnian Serb concentration camps.

Barbara was in hospital for three weeks. She has had plastic surgery and needs more, and she's being counselled to help her cope with her trauma and constant nightmares.

Apart from Davis, the gang were all found guilty of torturing their victim and attempting to murder her. Davis, of Portlethen near Aberdeen, was convicted of abduction and assault.

Barbara is satisfied that the Bitches, who sniggered at her as she gave evidence in court, have got what they deserved.

"The sentences are just what I need to get my life back together," she said.

"I may just get a night's rest now from the horror of my dreams."

JOANNE McCULLOCH: 12 YEARS

Barbaric Joanne McCulloch triggered the two-day torture orgy. She had shared her flat with her tiny brunette victim for nearly a fortnight but, when Barbara moved to a new house without paying rent, McCulloch sought a sickening revenge.

McCulloch and pal Marie Davis, both 19, were called the Fat Slags after characters from the comic Viz.

Later, they wrote a letter to a prison inmate boasting what they'd done.

JULIE DUFFY: 12 YEARS

Devil girl Julie Duffy was nicknamed Chucky after the killer doll in the horror movie Child's Play. The 16-year-old was given the tag because she bore a startling resemblance to the evil puppet which came to life to murder people in the film.

Duffy, who lived with her boyfriend in Cambridge Road, Greenock, helped shove Barbara into the tiny cupboard that became her prison and threw a kettle of scalding water over her body.

LOUISE CAMPBELL: DEFERRED

Cruel Louise Campbell gleefully heaped humiliation on the terrified victim.

The 17-year-old was known as Cochise because of the wide band she wore over her long, dark hair. It made her look like the Apache Indian chief.

Campbell lived in Mathie Crescent, Gourock, with her mum and dad.

She's the girlfriend of evil thug "The Beast" Woods and urinated in a tumbler for Barbara to drink.

MARIE DAVIS: 2 YEARS

Monster Marie Davis terrorised the one of the few girl's who had ever been her real friend.

The overweight, spotty teenager was a notorious school bully.

Wicked Marie, 19, who smirked throughout the trial, denied torturing pal Barbara Gillen.

But she later pled guilty to abduction and assault.

The arrogant thug spent the first two years of her life in hospital after being born with deformed hips.