Backpacker Attacked On SA Beach Tells Court It Was Like A “Horror Movie”

Just a friendly heads up: the following story is quite graphic and discusses violence and sexual assault, if this might be a bit too much for you, this would be the perfect time to click away.
A South Australian court has today been presented with evidence of an alleged Wolf Creek‘-style attack on two backpackers that took place on a remote beach in Coorong National Park in February last year.
The court has heard that the two backpackers, one German and one Brazillian, were attacked by a 60-year-old man they came into contact with after arranging a trip from Adelaide to Melbourne on the ride-sharing section of Gumtree.
The man allegedly drove them out to an isolated 4WD-access-only beach before luring one of the backpackers away from the camp site to attempt to attack her.
The Brazilian woman, a 24-year-old whose name has been withheld, told the court today that she thought she was going to die:
“I actually thought I was going to die. I imagined my mum going there … and seeing my dead body, coming to recognise my body.

“I thought no, I can’t do this, I came to Australia, I came to live my dream, I’m not going to die today, I’m going to do something and I’m going to get away from here.

“I was feeling like I was in the horror movies and I needed a strategy to get away.”
She told the court that she and the other woman became suspicious after the man suggested they move on after finding another four-wheel-drive at the initial campsite. When the German backpacker, whose name was also withheld, went to have a sleep, the man suggested to the other woman that they go looking for kangaroos in the dunes:

“I said that would be really nice — you come to Australia, you want to see kangaroos.”

“He was just, like, normal … nothing stood out to me … (his demeanour) was just regular, normal, nothing negative or positive.

“I didn’t see any kangaroos so I said ‘let’s go back’ … suddenly, I felt him on my back and he had his arm along my neck.

“I was just saying ‘no, stop that, it’s not cool, it’s not fine’ but he kept doing it so I couldn’t walk.”
The court heard that the man then pushed her down, throwing a knife into the sand near her and binding her wrists and ankles with nylon cord before cutting off her bikini and sexually assaulting her:
“He didn’t threaten me with the knife or anything but for me, I felt like he was saying ‘I’m the power, I have a knife’ … I felt genuinely threatened.

“Something was happening, something dangerous (to) my life.”
The woman told the court that the lengths of nylon used to bind her wrists and ankles were pre-cut to exact lengths, saying “it looked like he had planned.
The court heard that she then began trying to get the man to stop by talking him out of it:
“He was around my mouth saying ‘kiss me back’ and I started giving him excuses (saying) ‘my hands are tied, so sore, I can’t kiss you’.”

“He started getting really angry with me … he spat on me, he spat on my face … he started punching me on my left side, maybe five to 10 times.

“I don’t think he wanted to listen to what I was saying so he got the bottom of my bikini and tried to put it in my mouth and tie it, but he couldn’t do it.”
She then attempted to lure the man back to camp by telling him to would be “more pleasurable” if they went back to tents, after briefly entertaining the idea he appeared to change his mind, so she began screaming for the German woman:
“I started screaming (the German woman’s name) because it could be my last opportunity.

“He got really angry and pushed me down into the sand … he punched me again maybe five times. He grabbed some sand and said ‘if you do that again, you’re going to eat sand’.”
At this point, the German woman woke up, allegedly leading to a confrontation between her and the man, although the Brazilian woman told the court she does not know what transpired between them as she was attempting to slip her bonds, only managing to untie her wrists.
The court heard that at this point the German woman, who was bleeding after being hit by the man, untied the Brazilian woman’s wrists. The pair began to run as the man chased them down in his car:

“It was the exact moment when you’re watching a horror movie and the guy is going to follow the girls and they do that stupid thing”

“At that moment we saw him coming with the car, he was inside the car. We thought we need to go in separate directions, otherwise he’s going to just come and get both of us.”
The Brazilian woman allegedly hopped into a passing car and told the drivers that a man was trying to kill her and they needed to go back for the German girl, telling the court “She was there by herself, she was on the trip because I invited her.
After encountering some off-duty policemen who were fishing nearby, she was taken back to the Salt Creek roadhouse.
The man was arrested two hours later after he was found bogged down in his blood-covered four-wheel-drive by police.
The court was presented with several pieces of evidence from the alleged attack:

The trial is still ongoing.
Photo: ABC News.

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