Aussie man gets 10 years in jail for rape, kidnap of British backpacker

Sydney: An Australian man who kidnapped and raped a British backpacker during a harrowing road trip hostage ordeal was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years in prison, Australia's national broadcaster said.

Marcus Martin, 24, pleaded guilty to three counts of rape and one count of deprivation of liberty in October last year.

He met the then 22-year-old victim at a party in Australia's northeast in January 2017 before forcing her on a 1,600-kilometre road trip in which she was repeatedly beaten and raped.

The court heard the pair had moved from hotel room to hotel room, with Martin often forcing her to drive at gunpoint after destroying her passport, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation said.

He once gouged her eyes and on another occasion chocked her with her handbag.

"He threw away her birth control pills so she would never leave him because she would have his child," prosecutor Nathan Crane was quoted as saying by the ABC.

Police rescued the women in March 2018 after petrol station attendees raised the alarm when she drove off without paying for fuel.

Authorities found Martin hiding in the back of the vehicle.

Australia is a popular destination for young backpackers, with around 600,000 touring the country every year.

They occasionally run into trouble, most famously in the early 1990s when seven were murdered by Ivan Milat in a series of killings that terrified Australia.

Milat is serving consecutive life sentences after the remains of two Britons, three Germans and two Australians were found buried in a forest southwest of Sydney.