Gene Bristow, accused of kidnapping and raping a European backpacker, did not tell family he had hired her as a farmhand

A hobby farmer accused of kidnapping and raping a European backpacker did not tell his family he hired the woman as a farmhand because “we don’t let strangers in our lives very easily”, a jury has heard.

• Gene Charles Bristow stands trial accused of kidnap, rape
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A hobby farmer accused of kidnapping and raping a European backpacker did not tell his family he hired the woman as a farmhand because “we don’t let strangers in our lives very easily”, a jury has heard.

Gene Charles Bristow is on trial in the District Court and has taken the stand in his defence, telling the jury his family “had been taken advantage of before” so they were “very cautious of other people and what modus they might have to want to get to know us”.

”I thought my wife would be quite angry at me, the fact that I’d let an outsider in,” he said.

The jury heard he was unemployed at the time, and his wife may consider hiring a farmhand on their 40ha property at Meningie to be “wasting money”.

Bristow said he also lied about his name and the farm’s address in his initial emails with the backpacker to protect himself after earlier “bad experiences online”.

He told the jury the woman had been “content” with camping in the shed and said she had stayed at “worse places” during her previous travels.

Accused Gene Bristow, in blue short sleeved shirt, with sheriff’s officers on his property in Meningie. Picture: Brenton Edwards

Despite not telling his family about the woman’s presence, he invited her to visit the house at any time.

“I said if you need a shower you are welcome to come and use the one at the house,” he told the jury.

He said he also told the woman she was “free to go do what you like, when you like”.

Bristow previously pleaded not guilty to charges including aggravated kidnapping, indecent assault and rape over the backpacker’s alleged ordeal in February 2017.

In his defence, he told the jury that despite his son’s earlier evidence that the farm did not require a farmhand, the farm was “at maximum capacity” with 40 cows and calves.

He said he sought help on Gumtree for tasks including removing barley grass seeds from the eyes of calves and cleaning out a well on the property and had specifically sought out female help because women were known to be more “genteel” with animals.

The old pig shed at the Meningie property where the crimes allegedly occurred. Picture: Brenton Edwards

The jury has previously heard allegations Bristow repeatedly sexually assaulted the woman while she was shackled to the couch and threatened to shoot her if she tried to flee.

On Tuesday, he denied the backpacker was ever held captive.

“She was never chained up in my shed, she was never detained against her will,” he said.

“She was there of her own free will...she was on my property of her own free will and she left of her own free will.”

Prosecutors allege Bristow told the woman had he worked for “bosses” in a sex slave ring who abducted women and sent them to Melbourne and Sydney.

During her evidence, the woman had told the jury she managed to escape her shackles and send emails and social media messages to friends and family online saying she was “afraid” before putting the chains back on and hoping to be rescued.

Prosecutors had told the jury a police presence in Meningie the following day had prompted Bristow to return the woman to Murray Bridge, where she was later found.

But Bristow on Tuesday denied the woman’s account, saying she wanted to leave the property because it was “too hot” and she could not handle the conditions.

The trial, before Judge Geraldine Davison and a jury, continues.