Victim of sex fiend airs her defiance
FORMER chef Roman Heinze has been revealed as the sexual predator who attacked two backpackers at Salt Creek, with one defiantly telling him “you could not break me ... even when you tried so hard”.
The South Australian Supreme Court yesterday lifted extensive suppression orders on the identity of the 61-yearold, who launched his violent assaults on the remote SA beach in February last year.
Heinze tied up a Brazilian woman with rope and sexually assaulted her, before hitting a German woman in the head with a hammer several times and repeatedly ramming her with his 4WD.
A jury in March found him guilty of six charges, including indecent assault, aggravated kidnapping and endangering life.
In a victim impact statement, the German woman told the court she feared she would die during the attack and had since relived the horror “hundreds of times”.
But, in a defiant message to Heinze, she said his violence had only made her stronger.
“I want you to know, Roman, that you could not defeat me. You could not break me. You could not win, even when you tried so hard,” she said. “You could not make me into a victim because I’m a survivor. This only has made me stronger than I have ever been.
“I am very angry but, at the same time, I feel pity for you.
“I will never understand how and why you could do such things to innocent people.”
The Brazillian woman said she still had to deal with the physical scars of the attack and felt fear every time she went to the beach.
Heinze has also admitted to indecently assaulting another backpacker in 2014.