Woman’s 900-mile ordeal

A BRIT backpacker was put through a month-long rape and kidnap ordeal.

The woman, in her 20s, was forced on a 900-mile journey through the Australian outback.

She met tattooed Marcus Allyn Keith Martin at a party and told police he began abusing her soon after they met.

Her plight was only discovered when she stumbled into a petrol station in a “zombie-like” state.

Martin, 22, held her against her will for about a month during the brutal ordeal after they had met in the backpacker hotspot of Cairns.

After police were tipped off by the petrol station they pulled the car over, where the hostage was found badly bruised with black eyes and Martin was discovered hiding away in the back.

Horrific

Det Insp Paul Hart paid tribute to the British backpacker’s courage.

He said: “What she’s experienced is no doubt horrific and terrifying.

“She is a tourist, a lot of the areas she would have been, would have been unknown to her, and she wouldn’t have known anyone there, so it would have been difficult to make an escape.”

Martin pleaded guilty to rape and kidnap. His sentencing date will be set during his next court appearance in February next year.

He was only discovered when the pair stopped to fill up at a petrol station. The woman drove off without paying at a forecourt in Queensland, sparking a dramatic police rescue.

Petrol station attendant Beverley Page said: “She was in a state of shock when she came in, almost zombie-like.

“She came in, she couldn’t pay for the fuel. She was distressed, she was shaking, she was crying.

“I made the decision to follow her because I thought that if I could get the registration number I’d be able to file a report to the police.”

The backpacker, who is from Liverpool and arrived in Australia on a working visa in April 2015, told the authorities that Martin began abusing her shortly after they met.

Police said the victim’s injuries included facial fractures, bruising, abrasions to her neck, cuts to her body and psychological harm.

®