How botched ransom plot landed unemployed loser in jail
Unemployed loser Darren Saltmarsh should’ve stuck to gambling at his local Melbourne TAB. But he thought he could land a bigger payday by pulling off an international ransom plot. He was wrong.
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Darren Saltmarsh should’ve stuck to gambling at the local TAB.
The unemployed loser had placed some 7300 bets worth more than $92,000 in a recent streak, but he thought he could land a bigger payday by pulling off an international ransom plot.
Despite already being married to a woman he wed in the Philippines, Saltmarsh went trawling for a victim on an internet dating site in 2011.
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His username was “wantasianlove”.
When he came across an international student living in Australia, he asked the young woman if she’d be interested in paying for an arranged marriage in exchange for permanent residency.
She refused.
But she agreed to meet with Saltmarsh, lured by a false promise concocted by the then 35-year-old predator.
Saltmarsh drove her to his father’s property in an outer Melbourne suburb where he held a knife to her throat and told her she’d been abducted for a $20,000 ransom.
Calls were made to her family and friends for the money, and cash was stolen from her bank accounts.
At one point throughout the three day-saga, Saltmarsh stuffed the woman in the boot of his car and drove to a bank to check whether ransom money had been deposited.
When she was later left alone in his home, she was too scared to dial 000 for fear of Saltmarsh catching her and doing “horrible” things to her.
With no ransom forthcoming, Saltmarsh dug a grave in his father’s backyard.
But by that stage he was under police surveillance.
Detectives watched on in secret as he dug the hole and lay beside it and in it to test its dimensions.
On the third day of the kidnapping, Saltmarsh pulled a beanie over the woman’s eyes, tied her hands and frogmarched her to the hole.
“For a second I thought, ‘Maybe I’m going to die today and he’ll take all the money from my family’,’’ the victim later told police.
When Saltmarsh pushed the woman in the grave, police swooped with guns drawn and arrested Saltmarsh, shovel still in hand.
Saltmarsh later pleaded not guilty to kidnapping and attempted murder, claiming the plot was an elaborate hoax to make money, with the woman in on the plan.
It was a claim rubbished by Crown prosecutor Peter Rose, SC, at his Supreme Court trial.
“We know that she’s put in the boot of the car at some stage, because we’ve got DNA evidence from the rug in the boot of the car and the tape in the boot of the car. We also know that at some stage she vomited,” he told the jury.
“It doesn’t make sense to put your co-conspirator, if she’s part of the scam, in the boot, or to have her bound.’’
A doctor’s evidence suggested the woman’s injuries were “in keeping with her hands being bound for some time”.
During the trial, the jury watched a police surveillance video showing Saltmarsh digging the grave and later pushing the woman — bound and with her face covered — into the hole.
“You can’t get much further into the preparation of an attempted murder than that,’’ Mr Rose told the jury.
The jury found him guilty and Justice Betty King marvelled at his stupidity in using his own car and telephone during the kidnapping and extortion attempt.
Justice King shook her head at his preparedness to kill the woman and bury her in his dad’s yard, and described the criminal venture as “almost comical” in its planning.
“The planning is appalling, but the offending is incredibly serious,” she said.
“You are not any form of criminal mastermind.
“That this was not a well thought out offence is obvious. You used your own motor vehicle. You used your father’s house in which to detain (the victim).
“The story that you told the police was laughable. It was only your own incompetence … that allowed the police to find you and prevent this crime coming to a dreadful conclusion.’’
Justice King jailed Saltmarsh for nine-and-a-half years with a seven-year minimum.
The Director of Public Prosecutions successfully appealed the sentence, and had it increased to 12 years’ jail with a nine-year minimum.
Saltmarsh’s mum, Pamela, avoided jail for her minor involvement.
The Supreme Court heard she had performed errands for her son during the October 2011 abduction, including using the victim’s bank card to withdraw $800 from an ATM, $400 of which she kept.
She hadn’t questioned her son’s requests, the court heard.
Mrs Saltmarsh pleaded guilty to charges of perjury, theft and handling stolen goods.
Justice King said Mrs Saltmarsh had helped her son steal from the foreign student and later lied to police “in an attempt to protect (him)”.
“He is the only son, and has been clearly indulged by you, his mother,” Justice King said.
“That is what ultimately brings you before the court, your indulgence of him.”
Mrs Saltmarsh was sentenced to five weeks’ jail, wholly suspended for 12 months.