This was published 7 years ago
Salt Creek attacker in SA Supreme Court again over separate rape charge
The man who attacked two backpackers at South Australia's Salt Creek tied up and raped a Tasmanian girlfriend he met online only a month before his crimes on the beach, a court has heard.
The 60-year-old is on trial in the Supreme Court accused of sexually assaulting the woman while she visited him in Adelaide after they met on a dating website.
The pair established a long-distance relationship and she came to stay with him in Morphett Vale during the 2015-16 new year break.
But one night she woke up as he was tying her hands to the bedhead with a satin cord, the judge-alone trial heard on Tuesday.
The SES in sand dunes at Salt Creek, where the man attacked two backpackers in February 2016.Credit: ABC News/Dean Faulkner
"He was effectively sitting on top of her," prosecutor Jim Pearce QC said in his opening address. "He began to remove her knickers. She was resisting. She told him to stop.
"But he kept telling her to shut up.
"The more she struggled, the more aggressive he became."
He proceeded to rape her and she could do nothing but "simply acquiesce", the court heard.
It can be revealed he is the same man who attacked a Brazilian woman and a German woman at Salt Creek, east of Adelaide, in February 2016.
The man, who cannot be named, met the 24-year-old backpackers through classifieds website Gumtree, where the Brazilian had advertised for a ride from Adelaide to Melbourne.
He picked them up at a train station and drove them to sand dunes in SA's Coorong National Park, where he violently attacked them.
He tied up the Brazilian woman with rope and sexually assaulted her before hitting the German in the head with a hammer several times and repeatedly ramming her with his 4WD.
They both escaped and spoke at his Supreme Court trial, where Mr Pearce described them as "brave" and "impressive" young women.
The jury in March found the man guilty of six charges, including indecent assault, aggravated kidnapping and endangering life.
The current trial, relating to the Tasmanian woman, continues before Justice Trish Kelly.
AAP