Gene Charles Bristow lured a 24-year-old backpacker to his hobby farm in Meningie under false pretenses in February 2017
A cattle farmer who kidnapped and raped a Belgian backpacker in a dirty pig shed has been jailed for at least 12 years and six months.
Gene Charles Bristow held the woman on his farm in Meningie, 150km south east of Adelaide, for 36 hours after he answered a Gumtree advertisement she had posted in search of work in 2017.
Judge Geraldine Davison on Tuesday sentenced him to 18 years in jail, with a non-parole period of 12 years, six months.
Bristow, 54, had been due to appear in Adelaide District Court last week but his sentencing was postponed because of an unknown illness.
In February 2017, Bristow lured the 24-year-old backpacker to his hobby farm, claiming he could offer the woman temporary farm work, but instead when she arrived at his isolated residence he chained her up in a squalor and repeatedly raped her.
Bristow was found guilty by a jury in March on one count of aggravated kidnapping, two counts of rape, two counts of indecent assault, and one count of attempted rape.
Gene Charles Bristow held the woman on his farm in Meningie, 150km south east of Adelaide, for 36 hours after he answered a Gumtree advertisement she had posted in search of work in 2017
The images were shown to the court before Bristow was found guilty of six charges, including aggravated kidnapping, indecent assault and rape (pictured is the couch)
Sickening details of the kidnap and rape previously emerged during Bristow’s trial, in which the victim gave evidence in court.
She said he took her inside a disused pig shed where he asked to check the soles of her feet for needle marks and then pressed what turned out to be a fake gun to her back.
Bristow then bound the woman’s hands and feet, and chained her to the ground before leaving her alone in an old pig shed.
Bristow, 54, had lured the young woman to the property (pictured) with the promise of farm work when he kidnapped her and kept her captive before raping her repeatedly
The horrific scene where a Belgian backpacker was held captive with shackles and raped by a farmer who lured her with the promise of work have been revealed (pictured)
Shocking images that were shown in court, show the squalid conditions she endured, including the couch she was shackled to.
Bristow threatened to shoot the woman if she tried to escape and told her he was working with others in a kidnapping ring.
The now 26-year-old was seen weeping when evidence, including the ties she was shackled with, were tendered to the court.
‘I was feeling like it wasn’t real, you know, you wouldn’t believe that something was happening like that,’ she told the jury.
Bristow used a toy gun (pictured) to contain the backpacker while he shackled her to the bed in the run down pig shed on his family’s farm
The 26-year-old was seen weeping when evidence, including the ties she was shackled with, were tendered to the court (pictured are chains used to detain the woman in the shed)
‘I was feeling terrible and I would think about my family a lot. I thought I wouldn’t see them again. (I thought) I was going to die there,’ she said.
Police launched a full scale search for the missing backpacker after she managed to free her hands long enough to get to her laptop and alert family and friends to her dire situation.
Shortly after, Bristow was apprehended by authorities.
Further evidence, which was not included in the trial, revealed the farmer had had conducted internet searches for Rohypnol, commonly known as a date-rape drug, and tasers just four weeks before he abducted the woman, The Advertiser reported.
It’s also reported Bristow had searched on eBay for handcuffs, shackles, and a toy gun before he committed the horrific crime.
Authorities never found drugs nor tasers but prosecutors argued the searches proved the attack was premeditated.