Gene Charles Bristow bound and chained woman in an old pig shed south-east of Adelaide

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A South Australian man has been found guilty of kidnapping and raping a European backpacker in an old pig shed south-east of Adelaide.

A district court jury returned the guilty verdicts against Gene Charles Bristow on Monday after deliberating for about three hours at the end of the month-long trial.

The 54-year-old was found guilty of one count of aggravated kidnapping, two counts of indecent assault, two counts of rape and one count of attempted rape.

The charges stemmed from a Gumtree advertisement the 26-year-old woman posted in search of temporary farm work in February 2017.

The woman said Bristow offered her a job and picked her up from a bus stop at Murray Bridge, before driving her to his property at Meningie, 150km south-east of Adelaide.

She said he took her inside the disused shed and asked to check the soles of her feet for needle marks, then placed what turned out to be a fake gun to her back.

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He bound her hands and feet and chained her to the ground before leaving her alone in the shed.

“I was feeling terrible and I would think about my family a lot,” she told the court. “I thought I wouldn’t see them again and that I would die.”

The woman described to jurors how she eventually managed to free her hands and used her laptop to contact friends and family.

Bristow admitted using a different name in the pair’s online interactions and giving her incorrect details about the farm’s name, location and previous employees.

But he said the woman was never held against her will, insisting she was free to move about the farm and leave when she wanted.

Bristow said he brought her water, food and a book, but that she told him the next day she could not handle working in the heat.

He said he drove her back to Murray Bridge, helped her check into a motel and left.

Bristow showed no emotion when the verdicts were delivered and will return to court on Friday.