Salt Creek monster: Lifting the veil off the secret life of Roman Heinze
WE reveal shocking new information about the life of Roman Heinze, a twice-married father of five who led a double life of violence and obsession that culminated in the sadistic Salt Creek backpacker attacks.
- Revealed: Roman Heinze — the Salt Creek monster
- Salt Creek victim: You couldn’t break me
- Guilty: Jury convicts Salt Creek backpacker kidnapper
- 14 backpackers targeted: What the Salt Creek jury didn’t hear
READ BELOW: Timeline of depravity
HE was a twice-married father of five who, still grieving the deaths of his mother and eldest brother, gave up his career as a chef to care for his ailing father.
He was a keen fisherman who loved the outdoors, enjoyed a barbecue and when asked, described himself as a down-to-earth, “very easygoing guy”.
But fit, muscular Roman Heinze, standing 198cm (6 feet, 6 inches) tall, led a dark, sadistic double life — a man whose identity was cloaked in secrecy until Thursday.
Beneath the veneer of respectability was a dangerous predator with an eye for young foreign women — and an appetite for violent and perverse sex.
For the first time, The Advertiser can reveal the personal history of the man who, for so long, has been known only as the Salt Creek kidnapper.
Heinze’s elderly dad broke his silence on Thursday night, telling The Advertiser that he was not coping with the attention over his son.
“I’m 87 years old and this is the worst day of my life,” he said from his home in Adelaide’s south.
Longstanding suppression orders — some of the most draconian in South Australian legal history — were finally lifted in the Supreme Court.
They were revoked after prosecutors chose not to pursue Heinze for a fourth set of alleged “sexual offending”, which had been slated for a trial in September.
With Heinze unmasked, it led to another alarming revelation — that he was, at the time of his perverted crimes, in breach of a good behaviour bond for having assaulted yet another foreign backpacker.
The court heard of more shocking allegations that were eventually dropped, but carried a bail condition banning him from contacting women through the Gumtree website.
It was a condition, prosecutors said, Heinze did not obey. Instead, driven by sexual motives, he contacted a total of 15 women from all around the world.
That several of those women were tricked into thinking Heinze, 61, was safe to travel with is unsurprising, given how the predator presented himself online.
“I am a 198cm, six foot six inches athletic build — very fit, like most sports (including) fishing, swimming, snorkelling (and) diving,” he wrote in one profile.
“I like camping, barbecues, dining out ... (I’m a) very easygoing guy, down to earth, friendly, respect other people and other cultures.”
Bill Boucaut SC, for Heinze, laid out his client’s background for the court.
He said Heinze was born in West Germany and emigrated to Australia in 1959 with his parents and two older brothers.
Heinze had lived here ever since, he said, save for a brief period in the 1970s when he accompanied his parents to Germany
“His eldest brother died in 2014, his father still lives and his mother died in 1990,” he said.
“His father’s health is not good, he has a heart condition … he worked as a musician, and my client gave up work to become a carer for his father in 2013.”
Mr Boucaut said Heinze was a qualified chef and father of five, who had married and divorced twice before 2012.
He said his client’s eldest children continued to visit him in prison while he “maintained contact” with the other three.
Such a benign description stands vastly at odds with the horror of Heinze’s offending.
He will be sentenced next week for crimes against three backpackers, each of whom he met through Gumtree.
Heinze was convicted at trial of a raft of offences, including indecent assault, aggravated causing serious harm and aggravated kidnapping.
Those crimes were committed against backpackers from Brazil and Germany at Salt Creek in February 2016.
Heinze tied and sexually assaulted the Brazilian woman on the beach and threatened her with a knife.
When the German woman tried to intervene, he struck her four times in the head with a hammer and then repeatedly rammed her with his vehicle.
Heinze has also pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting another backpacker, whose nationality is unknown, in Hackham in September 2014 — before their departure on a planned trip.
On Thursday Mr Boucaut said his client and that backpacker had spent four days together — due to “car trouble” and a family illness — before the offence occurred.
“It culminated following an approach by Heinze as he was sitting on a couch near to (the woman) and put his hand on her thigh while talking.”
“He did not see that his attention was unwelcome, she did nothing at that stage that gave him a hint that it was unwelcome,” he said.
He said that, when the woman got up to charge her phone, Heinze approached her from behind, put an arm around her and touched her breast “over her clothes”.
He then steered her towards the bedroom by the shoulder and pushed her onto his bed.
“She pushed him away with her legs and feet and kicked at him,” Mr Boucaut said.
“She screamed a couple of times ‘what are you doing, everyone knows I’m here’ and he then desisted saying ‘I’m sorry, I don’t know what’s happened’.”
Mr Boucaut said Heinze left the room and the woman left the house.
Two more sets of offending — both sexual, one involving his former girlfriend — were also alleged.
One of those cases was dropped on Thursday while the other resulted in an acquittal.
But it didn’t represent the extent of Heinze’s offending.
His crimes at Salt Creek breached a good behaviour bond, imposed by Magistrate Jayne Basheer at Christies Beach Magistrates Court, for one basic count of assault.
That offence occurred at Goodwood in December 2014 — just three months after the Hackham crime. The Advertiser understands it involved yet another foreign backpacker.
Heinze’s litany of crimes attract maximum penalties ranging from just four years, for aggravated assault, to 25 years for aggravated kidnapping and causing serious harm. Whatever sentence she imposes, Justice Trish Kelly will unarguably be removing a dangerous and disturbing predator from the community.
A TIMELINE OF DEPRAVITY
SEPTEMBER 2014
Roman Heinze sexually assaults a backpacker, whose nationality has not been revealed, at his southern suburbs home after meeting her on Gumtree.
DECEMBER 2014
Heinze is charged over an assault at Goodwood. It is understood the incident involved a foreign backpacker. The Christies Beach Magistrates Court sentences him with a good behaviour bond.
NOVEMBER 2015
Heinze communicates with backpackers who advertise on the Gumtree website for travel companions. All but one refuse his offer.
NOVEMBER 24-25, 2015
The man and a Japanese backpacker travel to Salt Creek and camp. He had agreed to take her to Melbourne but returns her to Adelaide after she reveals she has posted photos of him and his vehicle online.
FEBRUARY 7, 2016
A Brazilian backpacker posts an advertisement on Gumtree looking for a ride to Melbourne. She receives offers from two people — including Heinze — and accepts the other person’s offer.
FEBRUARY 8, 2016
The Brazilian’s ride falls through. She contacts Heinze again and accepts his offer, asking if he will take a German backpacker as well. He agrees.
FEBRUARY 9, 2016
The trio travel to Salt Creek, where Heinze binds and sexually assaults the Brazilian and attacks the German with a hammer and his four-wheel-drive. They are rescued and taken to hospital. Heinze is arrested without incident.
FEBRUARY 10-11, 2016
Heinze appears in court and the case is made the subject of some of the most draconian suppression orders in state history. The media is banned from publishing even pixelated images of him, his possessions or the women.
JUNE 21, 2016
Police tell the court that “highly relevant material” has been found among Heinze’s possessions. The court hears Heinze has been charged over other incidents, unrelated to the Salt Creek attack, details of which are suppressed.
SEPTEMBER 1, 2016
Heinze pleads not guilty to all charges stemming from the Salt Creek attack and is ordered to stand trial in the Supreme Court.
MARCH 6, 2017
Prosecutors seek to have evidence of the man’s Gumtree use, and the trip with the Japanese woman, included as part of the trial.
MARCH 10, 2017
The Salt Creek trial begins with prosecutor Jim Pearce SC’s opening address.
MARCH 15, 2017
The Brazilian gives evidence, comparing the incident to “a horror movie” and saying she escaped only by focusing on survival and tricking the man.
MARCH 16, 2017
The German gives evidence, saying she saw herself “already buried” when the hammer struck her on the head.
MARCH 25, 2017
Heinze is convicted of kidnap and assault, but found not guilty of attempted murder.
APRIL 17, 2017
Heinze goes on trial charged over the rape and false imprisonment of his long-distance girlfriend at his southern suburbs home in January, 2016, a month before his Salt Creek crimes.
MAY 1, 2017
On the first day of his trial, Heinze pleads guilty to the September 2014 sexual assault of a backpacker he met via Gumtree and suggested they travel interstate via the Great Ocean Rd.
MAY 5, 2017
Heinze is acquitted of allegations he raped his long-distance girlfriend.
YESTERDAY
Suppression orders on Heinze are dropped after a fourth set of charges that were expected to go to trial in the District Court later this year are dropped.