Woman recovering in Brisbane hospital after being raped four times and repeatedly beaten and choked

A young British backpacker is recovering in hospital in Australia after being raped and repeatedly assaulted during a two-month ordeal in the outback, according to police.

The woman, who has not been named, was rescued by traffic officers near a small outback town in Queensland during a routine stop.

Her attacker, whom she met at the beginning of January at a party in Cairns, was discovered hiding in a storage alcove in the back of the four-wheel drive.

Inspector Paul Hart, who is leading the investigation, said the woman was visibly traumatised and had severe bruising to her face and neck. She told the officers who pulled her over that her attacker was hiding in the back of the SUV; they found him hiding under clothes.

“What’s happened to this young lady is quite catastrophic,” Hart said.

The police were alerted to the woman’s ordeal when she left a nearby petrol station without paying. The attendant alerted local traffic officers who followed the vehicle thinking they were carrying out a relatively routine stop.

Hart said: “It was on the face of it a pretty innocuous sort of job but from that she’s taken the opportunity to tell police what’s gone on and that fact that he’s still in the car. They’ve jumped on it from there and located him in the back portion where he’s retreated. They’ve obviously been living in the car.”

Police say the woman was raped four times, as well as being repeatedly beaten and choked, between 2 January and 5 March. This included attacks during the 845-mile (1,360km) road trip that began last week in Cairns and ended when the police pulled over the white SUV near the outback town of Roma, about 370 miles west of Brisbane, Queensland on Sunday.

The woman is understood to be recovering in hospital in Brisbane. A spokeswoman for the British high commission said consular officials were supporting her and were in contact with her family in the UK. Her parents left their house in a police car on Wednesday.

The man, a 22-year-old from the Cairns suburb of Manunda, has already appeared in court on more than 20 charges, including four counts of rape, eight counts of assault, four of strangulation and two of deprivation of liberty. He is also facing drug charges. Police believe he also damaged the backpacker’s passport, meaning she could not leave the country.

Hart said the pair had briefly been in a relationship before the woman was held against her will and repeatedly attacked.

An unnamed worker at the service station where the woman left without paying told the Daily Mail that she had offered to call police for the young woman after seeing her crying and shaking uncontrollably.

They spoke for 10 minutes before the victim said she could not pay for the fuel because her ex-boyfriend had her wallet and credit cards. The attendant said she would call the police and at that stage the woman left.

“I asked her where she was from – meaning where had she driven from – and she misunderstood my question and said ‘from England’,” the service station worker said.

“I’d already guessed that because she had a very English accent. There’s no doubt that she was upset and I thought it was because of not being able to pay but now I know the circumstances I realise her tears were because of what she was going through.”

She added: “I asked her if her black eyes were due to her ex-boyfriend and she nodded. I was very concerned about her, but I didn’t expect her to just walk out, get in the vehicle and drive off.”

Police stopped the vehicle about 15 minutes drive west along the Warrego highway towards Charleville.