Australian jailed for raping Dutch tourist

MELBOURNE (AFP) — An Australian man who repeatedly raped and degraded a terrified Dutch tourist during a six- week ordeal, including carving a cross into her forehead, was sentenced to 17 years in jail yesterday.

Alfio Anthony Granata, 47, pleaded guilty to 14 charges, including multiple rapes, threats to kill and intentionally causing serious injury over a six-week period in 2012.

Victorian County Court Judge Frank Gucciardo said Granata’s behavior was “vile and repulsive” and had dehumanized his 21-year-old victim.

“The victim was in constant pain,” he said. “She was degraded and humiliated.”

An earlier hearing was told Granata and his former partner Jennifer Peaston met the young bisexual backpacker at a party in Melbourne and they became friends, having consensual sex while smoking the drug ice, or crystal methamphetamine.

Granata later became obsessed that the two women were having sex behind his back and turned violent, threatening to kill the young woman if she left the hotel room where he and Peaston were living.

He was accused of attacking her, with the help of Peaston, with objects including a rolling pin, vacuum cleaner and a gas torch lighter in a pattern of escalating attacks.

The Melbourne Age said that on one occasion Granata carved a cross into the victim’s forehead, saying it meant she belonged to him and was “marked for death.”

In another bizarre ritual, Granata sealed her photograph, fingernail and hair clippings and blood in an envelope and poured hot wax over her body.