Voices of the Voiceless, Part 3: How survivors of some of SA’s most gruesome, frightening crimes triumphed over perverse offenders

Backpackers Lena and Beatriz escaped a cruel sex monster with their lives then bravely confronted him in court. Read their harrowing statement, in their own words.

Ruined childhoods, fractured friendships and dream holidays that became nightmares – these victims of crime had ever right to be broken by their experiences.

Instead, they showed their perseverance, determination and indominitable spirit by facing their tormentors in court and moving on with their lives.

Today, The Advertiser concludes its three-part series about survivors of SA crime, and the poignant victim impact statements they gave in court.

VOICES OF THE VOICELESS: PART ONE

VOICES OF THE VOICELESS: PART TWO

LENA AND BEATRIZ

They came to Australia for the time of their lives – instead, overseas backpackers Lena and Beatriz had to fight for their lives.

Strangers to one another upon their separate arrivals in SA, the women – from Germany and Brazil respectively – became fast friends upon meeting at a hostel.

When Beatriz arranged a trip, via the Gumtree website, with a helpful Aussie bloke, Lena accepted her offer to tag along.

Backpackers Lena, left, and Beatriz, right, outwitted and survived sexual predator and kidnapper Roman Heinze.

Unfortunately for the pair, the “bloke” in question was Roman Heinze – a dangerous predator with a keen interest in perverted sex and no throttle on his capacity for violence.

Lena and Beatriz had no way of knowing they were just two of 16 foreigners Heinze had targeted between 2015 and 2016.

They had no concept he had already assaulted two other backpackers – one sexually – whom he met through Gumtree.

Nor did they know a Japanese tourist had narrowly escaped his preferred stalking spot – an isolated beach at Salt Creek, hundreds of kilometres from Adelaide – just months prior.

And neither could possibly imagine Heinze’s goal was to bind Beatriz, strip her naked with a knife and rape her, then run Lena down with his car.

Fortunately for the women, none of that mattered – they were too strong, too smart, too resilient and too much of a team for Heinze to handle.

Salt Creek kidnapper Roman Heinze.

Lena’s blood ran down the side of Heinze’s four-wheel drive after he repeatedly struck her with it as she tried to flee. Picture: Supreme Court.

Beatriz used her wits to trick Heinze, vowing “I am not going to die today”, which alerted Lena to her distress and brought the German running.

Lena untied Beatriz and, in a moment of tremendous courage, the pair ran in separate directions to escape their predator.

When Beatriz was rescued by passing fishermen, she refused to leave the beach until Lena had been found despite her utter terror.

When Heinze bashed her with a hammer, then ran her down, a bloodied Lena climbed onto the top of his four-wheel drive until, defeated, he surrendered to inevitable arrest.

And then, at Heinze’s trial, they relayed their story so passionately, so eloquently, that jurors found him guilty and he was jailed for 22 years.

But even after days in the witness box recounting her personal “horror movie”, it was in her May 2011 victim impact statement that Lena truly struck back at Heinze.

“I came to Australia to have unforgettable experiences … I had them, but in a negative way,” she said.

“I experienced the most intense feelings I’ve ever had … panic, fear for my life, fear that I had to die when I didn’t want to die yet.

“I feel so betrayed that you attacked us (but) you cannot take what Australia means to me … I know this crime has nothing to do with the country, but only you as a person.

“I want you to know, Roman, that you couldn’t break me, even when you tried so hard.

“You couldn’t make me into a victim because I am a survivor.

“This has only made me stronger than I have ever been, and shown me what I’m capable of.”

Hayley, one of the women who survived serial rapist Trevor John Brooks. Picture: Michael Milnes.

HAYLEY AND THE SURVIVORS

Their homes, minds and bodies were violated by one of SA’s sickest criminals – a serial rapist who broke into their houses, naked but for a mask, and attacked while they were vulnerable.

From 1995 until 2000, the masked rapist terrorised women in Adelaide’s northern suburbs.

There seemed to be, aside from his mask, no consistent pattern to his offending – he would appear, ruin a woman’s life, then disappear for months at a time before striking again.

For half a decade, the women he raped lived only half lives, always wondering if the man staring at them on the street or in the shops was the one who’d hidden behind the mask.

In the end, it was a break with his perverse tradition that sealed the rapist’s fate.

In October 2000, and in what would prove to be his final crime, he wore socks when he broke into the motel room of a woman recovering from open-heart surgery.

The noise of his attack alerted other patrons who called police and, in his haste to escape, the rapist left one sock behind.

DNA sources from the discarded sock allowed SA police to definitively tie all of the rapes to one another – and to an entirely unexpected crime.

Trevor John Brooks mockingly applauded his victims as he was led to the cells – they drowned him out with applause of their own.

A man named Trevor John Brooks had been caught committing a completely unrelated break-in that same year, and his DNA had been taken upon his arrest.

His genetic signature was a perfect match for that contained within the sock – unmasked at last, Brooks confessed to multiple counts of rape and attempted rape.

The case was a watershed, not just for SA Police’s use of DNA as a crime-fighting tool but also for the visibility of survivors of sexual assault.

In a then-unprecedented show of resilience and tenacity, Brooks’ victims opted to don assumed names and tell their stories publicly, all to ensure he was brought to account.

Led by “Hayley”, the first of Brooks’ victims, the women used a December 2003 hearing to excoriate the creature who had done them such harm.

“No matter what the sentence is, Mr Brooks, it can never be equal to my sentence,” Hayley told the rapist.

“I will take my sentence to my grave … to this day I feel a sense of fear, violation, confusion and disgust.

“No, Mr Brooks, I do not want revenge – I want justice.

“Be rest assured, nothing has ever given me greater pleasure than to stand up here today, look you in the eye and speak these words to you.

“I may always be affected by the rape but I am free to enjoy the greatest pleasure of all, and that is freedom – you, Mr Brooks are not free.

“Your imprisonment will protect me and others.”

A manipulator to the last, Brooks asked for the court’s permission to address the survivors – the court unsurprisingly refused, saying the women “don’t have to tolerate that”.

Even the imposition of a 27-year prison term did not shake Brooks’ determination to have the last word.

As he stood up to be led to the cells, he sardonically applauded the women who sat in the public gallery.

Unbowed and unbroken, they rose to their feet and applauded his departure – Brooks was last seen hanging his head, defeated.

Colleen Adams with husband Geoffrey on their wedding day.

MARIE COLLEEN ADAMS, KRISTINA BURFORD AND HEATHER JOHNCOCK

Geoffrey Adams looked his daughters in the eye and told them their mother, Colleen, had left them.

His tale was convoluted and involved a mystery woman in a white Ford Falcon, Mrs Adams packing her bags in a morning in 1973 and saying “goodbye, you little bastards” to her beloved daughters, then aged three and 18 months old.

But it was all a lie. A lie which took more than 45 years to be unravelled and for justice to be served.

Following a targeted police investigation in 2018, Adams broke down during an interview and admitted hitting his wife with a metal pole before burying her in the backyard.

Geoffrey Adams in 2018 shortly before confessing to killing his wife Colleen in 1973. Picture: Nine News

He pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was acquitted, by a jury, of murdering Mrs Adams.

Adams’ daughter Marie Colleen Adams, told the Supreme Court through a victim impact statement read by the prosecutor that she had been led to believe her mother had the “baby blues” and had abandoned her children.

“I believed that I had been responsible for her leaving and I thought that I must be unlovable,” she said.

“I thought I was living with the sins of my mother, but now I realise that they were the sins of my father.

“It took me years to realise that my mother did love me and didn’t choose to abandon me.”

Kristina Burford, left, and Heather Johncock, right, sisters of murder victim Colleen Adams outside the Adelaide District Court after giving victim impact statements. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Brenton Edwards

Mrs Adams’ sister Kristina Burford locked eyes with a sickly and frail Adams in the dock as she read her victim impact statement.

“The pain of not knowing has been immense,” she said.

“I have sat here in court and listened to Colleen being described as an unstable person so you, Geoffrey Adams, would look like the victim. Colleen was the victim here.

“I feel nothing but hate and contempt for you and your lies and deceit for how you treated my family.

“I will never forgive you for killing my sister.”

Geoffrey Adams with police at their former Maitland home identifying where he buried the body of his wife Colleen Adams. Pic: 9 News

Heather Johncock, Mrs Adams sister, said that she never believed her sister would walk out on her children.

“I had the job of explaining to Colleen’s daughters was she was really like and why she would never have left them and what I thought really happened to her,” she said.

“This caused me a lot of hurt and pain to hear the lies that you told them.

“With all the hurt you have placed on me I have never once lied to your daughters.

“What you did you Colleen is unforgivable and has caused me untold pain for the last 47 years.”

Shortly before he was to be sentenced for manslaughter, Adams was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer.

Within days of the court placing sentencing on a permanent hiatus, Adams died in Yatala Labor Prison.

Zoe Fenn, the victim and best friend of Renmark high school stabber Amber Rover, spoke outside court after Rover was sentenced to limited day release. Picture AAP

ZOE FEN

She endured the most physically painful and traumatic experience of her life when she was stabbed and suffered a life-threatening lung puncture, but teenager Zoe Fenn quickly forgave her attacker.

Her best friend and classmate, Amber Brea Rover, had walked up behind her and plunged a long-blade kitchen knife into her back during an afternoon English lesson at Renmark High School in July 2018.

In her victim impact statement, which she read aloud herself in the District Court a little over a year later, Ms Fenn said despite her painful injuries the bond she shared with Rover was “unbreakable”.

“Amber is still my best friend. That has not changed,” she said.

“The bond this tragic incident has given Amber and I is unbreakable.

“It’s a unique and lifelong friendship which we share that has not changed.”

Rover was found not guilty of a charge of aggravated causing serious harm with intent over the attack because she was deemed mentally incompetent at the time. The court heard that, at the time of the incident, Rover had undiagnosed schizophrenia.

“Those actions weren’t those of my best friend but it was an action of an illness that was unknown,” Ms Fenn said.

With maturity beyond her years, the then 18-year-old said the incident had caused her to change her perspective on life.

“If I could I wouldn’t change anything as Amber has had the chance to get the help she needs and I have grown up so much from this experience,” she said.

“This whole experience has helped me in a weird way to think differently about life.”

After a later hearing, Ms Fenn spoke briefly outside court, describing Rover as an “amazing person”.

“It’s just been about support and forgiveness and just putting yourself out of the situation and seeing how they feel,” she said.

“It’s been hard but I wouldn’t change a thing.”

Judge Jo-Anne Deuter set a limiting term – a period in mental health detention equivalent to a jail term for an offender found mentally incompetent – of five and a half years during a sentencing hearing for Rover in August 2019. Taking into account time already spent in custody, the limiting term was reduced to four years and five months.

During those remarks, Judge Deuter said Ms Fenn’s forgiveness and support of Rover “says a great deal about a strong friendship”.