Alfio Anthony Granata who kept a backpacker as sex slave in Preston hotel given extra jail for rapes, torture

A MAN who kept a Dutch backpacker prisoner in a Melbourne hotel room while claiming to be possessed by the devil has had his ‘inadequate’ sentence increased.

Alfio Granata has had his term increased by six years over the horrific torture and rape of a backpacker. Picture: Supplied

A MAN who kept a Dutch backpacker as his sex slave in a Melbourne hotel room while claiming to be possessed by the devil has had his sentence increased by six years because it was too lenient.

Alfio Anthony Granata, 48, was last year ordered to serve at least 13 years behind bars for the campaign of abuse he perpetrated against a 21-year-old woman he kept prisoner in a Preston hotel room in 2012.

But the Victorian Court of Appeal this morning said Granata’s infliction of a “private hell” of brutal rape, death threats and abuse was “extremely depraved” and it increased his minimum term to 17 years.

The Bell City Rydges Hotel complex.

The Director of Public Prosecutions had appealed the sentence on the grounds it was manifestly inadequate.

What began as a consensual threesome with Granata and his partner turned into a six-week ice-fuelled nightmare for the tourist, who escaped the horror on Christmas Day 2012 after stabbing Granata and trying to take her own life.

In a room at Preston’s Rydges Bell City complex, the victim was stabbed and cut with knifes, assaulted with a meat tenderiser and repeatedly raped.

Much of the horrific abuse was filmed.

Granata claimed to be possessed by the devil and threatened to kill her and her family, saying he had killed 248 people and gotten away with it.

Granata claimed he had killed hundreds of people.

“The killing has begun. Your death is certain. I will hurt you so bad that you will need life support for weeks and when you are better I will start all over again. I will peel all your skin off with a knife and cut off all your fingers and toes if you, stupid girl, defy me,” he told the terrified victim.

During the ordeal he cut a cross into the tourist’s head, telling her she was “marked for death”, and performed a ritual which involved putting a photo of the tourist, hair and nail cuttings, and her blood in an envelope to signal the end of her life.

Granata pleaded guilty last year to 16 offences, after originally facing around 170 charges.

- AAP