A young British tourist was allegedly raped and assaulted repeatedly while held captive on a road trip through outback Australia.
The harrowing ordeal for the 22-year-old ended on Sunday afternoon when officers pulled over a four-wheel-drive in a routine traffic stop at Mitchell, about 600km west of Brisbane, Queensland police said.
The visibly distressed woman at the wheel, who had facial fractures, bruises and cuts, told officers of her ordeal and alerted them to her attacker hiding in a storage alcove in the back of the vehicle, police said.
Inspector Paul Hart said the pair, who met at a dance party outside Cairns in January, had briefly been in “a relationship that’s obviously soured.”
“It’s tragic for the poor woman,” Hart told Guardian Australia.
Police were investigating the possibility her alleged attacker had fled Cairns after a falling out with drug associates, Hart said.
Police pulled over the vehicle on a highway outside of Mitchell about 5pm on Sunday after a petrol station worker reported it left without paying for fuel.
“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,” Hart said.
“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 allege the woman was raped four times, as well as being repeatedly beaten and choked, between 2 January and 5 March. This included on a journey beginning last week that stretched at least 1,360km from Cairns in the far north and south to the outback town of Roma.
An unnamed service station worker 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 woman left without paying, she said.
The woman is understood to be recovering in hospital in Brisbane.
A spokeswoman for the British high commission said consular officials were supporting the woman. “We are in really close contact with her and her family in the UK,” she said.
Hart said the pair may have been travelling to Charleville where the woman’s alleged attacker claimed to have lined up employment.
The 22-year-old man, from the Cairns suburb of Manunda, has already faced court on more than 20 charges. They include four counts of rape, eight counts of assault, four of strangulation and two of deprivation of liberty. He is also facing drug charges.
“We would certainly say that what’s happened to this young lady is quite catastrophic,” Hart earlier told ABC radio. “There are numerous supports that have been put in place [for the victim].”
The Cairns man remains in custody after facing a court in Roma on Monday.
- Australian Associated Press contributed to this report
