Salt Creek backpackers trial: Details the jury never heard
THE Advertiser can now reveal shocking prosecution evidence never heard by the Supreme Court jury that on Saturday convicted a man, 60, of offences including aggravated kidnapping and assault. | Guilty verdicts in Salt Creek case
- THE VERDICT: Jury rules on Salt Creek trial
- THE PROSECUTION: ‘She was covered from head to toe in blood’
- THE DEFENCE: ‘He’s creepy and sleazy — but not a criminal’
- THE VICTIMS: ‘I saw myself already buried in the sand’
THE Salt Creek kidnapper took a Japanese backpacker to the same isolated spot just three months before his crimes — but returned her, unharmed, after she revealed she had posted photos of him online.
The Advertiser can now reveal prosecution evidence unheard by the Supreme Court jury that on Saturday convicted the man, 60, of offences including aggravated kidnap, indecent assault, aggravated assault, endangering life, causing serious harm, and aggravated causing harm.
He was found not guilty of attempted murder.
During pre-trial legal argument, prosecutor Jim Pearce SC said 12 other backpackers had been approached by the man in the months leading up to the Salt Creek incident.
He responded to their adverts, on the Gumtree website, for travel companions, offering to drive them to locations including Perth, Darwin, Alice Springs and Melbourne “more or less at a moment’s notice”.
Mr Pearce said many of those offers included the suggestion of “fishing and camping on the Coorong” — just as he had done with his German and Brazilian victims.
He said all but one of the women rejected his offers after communicating with him via SMS and Facebook — but the one who went took out an “insurance policy”.
“She had been taking photos of the car, of him, of all sorts of things, and making it abundantly clear to the accused that she had sent these photos off to her family and friends,” he said.
“In a sense, it was her insurance policy — she had made a point of letting him know she had identified him in those photos and they had been sent here and there, to more than one person.
“It may well be, and this is speculation I expect, that he got cold feet (because) he took her back to Adelaide … he had to.”
Prior to the trial, Mr Pearce sought to have statements written by the Japanese woman and 11 other backpackers — one Australian, the others foreign nationals — tendered as evidence.
He said they included:
A FRENCH WOMAN who, in November 2015, wanted to go to Melbourne via the Great Ocean Rd.
A GERMAN WOMAN who, in November 2015, wanted to go to Melbourne via the Great Ocean Rd.
A FRENCH WOMAN who, in January 2016, wanted to go to Alice Springs.
A FRENCH WOMAN who, in January 2016, wanted to go to Darwin.
AN AUSTRALIAN WOMAN who, in January 2016, wanted to go to NSW.
A CANADIAN WOMAN who, in January 2016, wanted to go to Melbourne.
A GERMAN WOMAN who, in January 2016, wanted to go to Melbourne.
A GERMAN WOMAN who, in January 2016, wanted to go to Melbourne.
“There is an escalation of interest in travelling with these women,” Mr Pearce said.
“It shows that he has got this interest in being alone and travelling alone to isolated places with these young women, just like he did with (the German) and (the Brazilian).
“Combine that with the Viagra and the condoms — there was also a bottle of passion pop in the car (at Salt Creek) — it indicates what his true state of mind was.
“When taken collectively, they give the whole trip its sexual aspect.”
Mr Pearce said all of the backpackers declined the man’s offers — except for the Japanese woman, who accompanied him to Salt Creek on November 23 and 24, 2015.
“She was going to Melbourne, she never got to Melbourne because the accused claimed he had to go back (to Adelaide),” he said.
“Nothing sexual happened there, and they returned.
“Something stopped him from taking her to Melbourne as he had planned, whether it was because there was a genuine issue he had to deal with in Adelaide or whether it was because he got cold feet or whether it was that he knew, as he must have, that she had communicated to a number of people his identity and whereabouts.”
He said that, after they returned from Salt Creek, the man became “obsessed” with the Japanese backpacker.
“(His subsequent behaviour) indicates a very unusual and deep-seated interest in her and her whereabouts,” he said.
“(He was) fascinated by her, he must have been, given his interest in her after the trip — which does call into question whether it was just a friendly trip down to the coast.
“He had a specific interest in (her), that interest involved him taking her to Salt Creek.”
Defence counsel Bill Boucaut SC objected to jurors being presented any of the evidence, saying it carried “a prejudicial punch”.
“It suggests that he’s got this very unhealthy sexual interest in backpackers,” he said.
He said searching for travelling companions online was a “commonplace activity”, and any obsession the man developed with an unrelated woman had no relevance to the Salt Creek trial.