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Salt Creek backpacker attacker Roman Heinze jailed for 22 years

Roman Heinze was handed a 22-year sentence.

Roman Heinze was handed a 22-year sentence. Photo: Facebook

The man convicted of a brutal assault on two young backpackers at South Australia’s Salt Creek has been sentenced to 22 years and four months in jail, with a non-parole period of 17 years.

Roman Heinze was found guilty in South Australia’s Supreme Court of six offences over the attack in February last year, including aggravated kidnapping, causing harm with intent, assault, endangering life and indecent assault.

Heinze was also convicted of indecently assaulting another young woman about two years before the Salt Creek attack.

The identity of the 61-year-old from Morphett Vale in Adelaide’s south was only revealed recently due to court suppression orders.

Backpackers met Heinze via Gumtree

During the trial, the jury heard a Brazilian backpacker was found naked and screaming for help on a remote stretch of beach in the Coorong region and her friend, a German woman, was found covered headto-toe in blood.

The women, both aged 24, told the court how they thought they were going to die during the attack.

The pair only met each other in the days prior to the attack through a mutual friend, and decided to travel together as they both wanted to see the sights along the Great Ocean Road to Melbourne.

Heinze met the backpackers after responding to an advertisement the Brazilian woman put on the website Gumtree looking for a ride.

The court heard they set up camp on a remote stretch of beach at Salt Creek, and in the afternoon the German woman went to sleep in the back of Heinze’s car.

Giving evidence, the Brazilian woman said the man suggested they go and look for kangaroos in the sand dunes, and when she asked to go back to the camp he grabbed her from behind and pulled her to the ground.

She said he pulled a knife from the back of his pants and threw it into the ground beside her before binding her wrists and ankles with rope, cutting her bikini off with a knife, punching her in the head and sexually assaulting her.

The German woman told the court she woke to the sound of her friend screaming, and when she yelled at the man to stop he ran after her and attacked her with a hammer.

As she tried to run away, the court heard he mowed her down in his four-wheel drive, using the bull bar as a battering ram.

In handing down the sentence Justice Trish Kelly also took a swipe at three off-duty police officers, while praising the “decent Australian men” who went to the aid of two young backpackers.

“Fortunately there were some decent Australian men about the place that day,” Justice Kelly said.

“I’m not referring to the three off-duty police officers whose only apparent role in the drama unfolding on the beach around them that afternoon was apparently to drag a couple of Eskies across the entrance to the beach and to carry on fishing.
“No, I’m not referring to them.”

Justice Kelly said the heroes were two brothers, a group of fishermen and the local roadhouse owner who, she said, all played a role in rescuing the women as well as helping police capture their attacker despite the terror and fear they felt on the day.

– with ABC and AAP

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