Woman tells SA Supreme Court of her love affair with the Salt Creek backpacker kidnapper — and how it ended in an alleged ‘cruel’ rape
DATING the convicted Salt Creek kidnapper was a rosy honeymoon one minute and a “lion’s pit” of arrogance, anger and sudden violence the next, his former girlfriend says in a rare insight.
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DATING the convicted Salt Creek kidnapper was a rosy honeymoon one minute and a “lion’s pit” of arrogance, anger and sudden violence the next, his former girlfriend says.
The woman, who cannot be identified, has told the Supreme Court she was drawn in by the kidnapper’s “soft, gentle, safe” voice — then “cruelly” bound and raped by him.
Her evidence details multiple, escalating incidents of aggression that, she claims, culminated in the rape that predated the now-infamous kidnapping by just weeks.
She told the court the kidnapper, whose identity is suppressed, would “snap” at the slightest provocation and launch into foul-mouthed rants.
“We were talking about past exes and stuff like that ... his mannerisms (became) quite arrogant and he was more or less ‘all you bitches are the same’,” she said.
“I instantly felt like I was thrown into the lion’s pit with the others that he was angry or felt anger toward.
“(At Christmas) I handed his brother a cigarette and (the kidnapper) said, and I will say exactly what he said, ‘I’ve smashed more c--ts for less than that’.”
The man, 60, is awaiting sentence for multiple offences, including rape and aggravated assault, committed at the remote Coorong beach in February 2016.
He bound and sexually assaulted a Brazilian backpacker, then repeatedly struck her German travelling companion with a hammer and his car, “mowing” her down.
Following his conviction for those offences, the man was placed on trial a second time for allegedly raping his former girlfriend in January 2016.
In her evidence, the former girlfriend said she met the kidnapper in late 2015 through an online dating website.
His first message to her, she said, was a picture of a puppy holding a rose with the caption: “I’ve made the first step”.
She told the court they “talked non-stop on the phone” for up to 12 hours a day and it “felt wonderful”.
“I was totally drawn to his voice ... it came across as a soft, gentle type of voice ... he had a bit of a sense of humour, he was witty,” she said.
“It felt like he was being completely honest with me which drew all my emotions and feelings into it.”
They met face-to-face when she flew to Adelaide to stay with him and, upon experiencing “an instant feeling of safety”, accepted his spontaneous marriage proposal.
“It was fabulous, I felt like I was floating, like we were really in love and I was special,” she said.
“It was like being on a honeymoon, everything just seemed rosy.”
The woman said that “rosy” feeling temporarily disintegrated when he compared her to other “bitches”, but they were soon “back on track”.
She said she made plans to move permanently to Adelaide only to receive a “very cold, very callous, very empty” email rescinding the proposal.
Again, their relationship resumed — only to finally fall apart at Christmas, when he alternated between praising her beauty and abusing her verbally.
She said she decided “enough is enough” when he swore at her in front of his brother and moved to leave.
“He grabbed me by the throat and he’s squeezing me and shoving me backwards ... his brother and father got up, shouting at him (to stop) and he let me go,” she said.
She said she was “not game” to cry out for help when he subsequently raped her, opting to stop moving and hope he would “get it over and done quickly”.
“I felt worthless, I felt empty ... he just kept biting me, roughly, he was actually quite cruel,” she said.
“I stopped moving and let him do what he wanted to do.”
Bill Boucaut SC, for the man, asked the court to reject the woman’s evidence.
He said she suffered from a “significant and longstanding” mental illness that included symptoms of “irrationality, paranoia and hallucinations”.
He suggested she was “somebody who wants sympathy but not the scrutiny of the authorities”, had refused to involve the police and had “played down” her illness.
“She is a woman scorned ... I don’t want to be melodramatic about it,” he said.
“She is most certainly a woman scorned and rejected by the love of her life — not only scorned, but embarrassed.”
Mr Boucaut said the woman had “jumped on the bandwagon” of the Salt Creek “media frenzy”.
“She told police ‘I saw some footage on the news ... straight away I recognised (the man), he had the same T-shirt on that I had got him for Christmas’,” he said.
His assertions were sternly refuted by prosecutor Jim Pearce QC.
“There is no suggestion that she has been vindictive, and just because someone is upset does not mean they are psychotic or lying about what happened to them,” he said.
Justice Trish Kelly remanded the man in custody and will hand down her verdict on a date to be set.