This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

An Australian man who raped and kidnapped a British backpacker has been jailed for 10 years.

Marcus Allyn Keith Martin, 24, was sentenced at Cairns district court on Tuesday, having previously pleaded guilty to the rape and deprivation of liberty of Elisha Greer, from Liverpool.

Greer, who travelled to Australia in 2015 when aged 22 and met Martin in 2017, told the ITV programme This Morning she had been repeatedly beaten and raped by her attacker, who threatened to hurt her family if she ever left.

She said he stayed with her after meeting him at a party, before they were both evicted from her accommodation and travelled round Queensland in a car for weeks.

She said: “He pretty much changed my mind to believe that if I ever was away from him he’d murder me.

“It all became a little bit numb. So you sort of, not get used to it, but you don’t think about it any more so it just becomes normal.” She said Martin, who was often high on crystal meth, had paranoid thoughts and believed she was with Interpol.

In her efforts to get away, Greer said she once wrote “please help me” in a visitors’ book. Martin was eventually caught when she drove away from a petrol station without paying for fuel, in the hope police would arrest them.

UK backpacker speaks of her rape and kidnap ordeal in Australia Read more

Greer was bruised and battered when she was rescued by police on the outback highway near Mitchell, about 370 miles (600km) west of Brisbane.

The service station manager Beverley Page told reporters at the time Greer was crying and shaking when she explained she could not pay for fuel because her ex-boyfriend had her wallet.

When officers pulled their vehicle over on the Warrego Highway, they found Martin hiding in the back.

Greer said 10 charges against Martin, eight of rape, one of serious cruelty to animals and one of torture, had been dropped – but he had pleaded guilty to three counts of rape and one count of deprivation of liberty.