Salt Creek kidnapper acquitted of charge he raped online girlfriend, now faces sentencing for crimes against three backpackers

THE Salt Creek kidnapper has been acquitted of allegations he raped his online girlfriend before his infamous crimes on the remote Coorong beach.

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• New trial: Salt Creek kidnapper “bound and raped girlfriend”
• Woman tells: “My love affair with the Salt Creek kidnapper”
• Salt Creek lawyer: Girlfriend is “mentally ill, unreliable”
• Salt Creek kidnapper assaulted another backpacker two years earlier

THE Salt Creek kidnapper has been acquitted of allegations he raped his online girlfriend before his infamous crimes on the remote Coorong beach.

On Friday, the Supreme Court found the man not guilty of rape and false imprisonment.

Justice Trish Kelly ruled it probable the man had tied the woman to his bedhead with a satin cord and had sexual intercourse that was “plainly accompanied by a degree of violence”.

However, she said she could not be satisfied of those matters beyond a reasonable doubt due to “concerns” and “reservations” about the woman’s testimony.

The acquittal means the kidnapper, whose identity is suppressed, will next week face sentencing submissions for his crimes against three backpackers — including the two he attacked at Salt Creek — who he met through the Gumtree website.

He is awaiting sentencing for a raft of offences including indecent assault, aggravated causing serious harm, and aggravated kidnapping.

The man was convicted, by a jury, of having committed those crimes against two backpackers — from Brazil and Germany — at Salt Creek in February 2016.

The site of the infamous Salt Creek kidnapping. Picture: Mark Brake

The man tied and sexually assaulted the Brazilian on the beach, and threatened her with a knife.

When the German tried to intervene, the man struck her four times in the head with a hammer and then repeatedly rammed her with his vehicle.

It subsequently emerged the duo were the 14th and 15th backpackers, respectively, the man had targeted via the Gumtree website’s ride-sharing section.

One woman, whose nationality is unknown, was sexually assaulted by the man prior to their departure in September 2014.

The man confessed to that offending on the day his trial was due to begin.

A second woman, from Japan, went with the man to Salt Creek but he ended their trip early when she revealed she had posted photographs of him online.

Following the Salt Creek case, the man stood trial again on charges of rape and false imprisonment.

Prosecutors alleged that, in January 2016 — a month before events at Salt Creek — the man tied a woman to his bedhead with a satin cord and then raped her.

That woman, they alleged, was his girlfriend — whom he met through an online dating site.

The court has yet to hand down its verdict on those offences.

Counsel for the man rejected the allegations, saying the woman was an unreliable witness due, in part, to her ongoing issues with mental illness.

On Friday, Justice Kelly said the relationship between the man and his online girlfriend was “intense” to begin with.

“The high-point of this ill-fated affair seems to have been the accused’s marriage proposal to (the woman) on the escalator at the Adelaide Airport, which she immediately accepted,” she said.

“From there, things went downhill relatively quickly.”

Justice Kelly said the relationship “did limp on” despite the woman’s claims the man was verbally abusive toward her and had, at one stage, sought to end their engagement.

She said she “did not disbelieve” the woman’s account of the alleged incident, but “several aspects” of her evidence “cause me some concern”.

Among those aspects was the amount of alcohol the woman had consumed before the alleged rape, and her silence during it.

“I do not mean to suggest, by these remarks, that a woman in the same position ... must cry or scream or yell for help in such a situation,” she said.

“But against the background of the history between the accused and (the woman), in particular their sexual history, I am unsure what to make of her silence.”

She said she was “also unsure what to make” of the fact the woman did not tell her close friends about the incident, and her refusal in court to name those people.

“In addition ... I have some reservations about the mental and emotional state of (the woman) and the effect it may have had on her, both during the event as it unfolded and in the days and weeks after,” she said.

Justice Kelly said it was probable the man bound the woman, that sexual intercourse occurred and that she “most likely” sustained injuries to her body as a result.

That intercourse, she said, was “plainly accompanied by a degree of violence, which is unusual to say the least”.

“However ... I am left with some doubt about the precise circumstances in which this event unfolded,” she said.

“It is not enough that I have concluded that the accused probably did the things alleged ... I must be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt of these matters before he can be convicted.

“As I do not have that degree of satisfaction in all of the circumstances, the accused is entitled to an acquittal.”

She remanded the man in custody to face sentencing submissions for his convictions next week.

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