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Belgian backpacker reveals how Gumtree rapist lured her into shed

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Belgian backpacker reveals how Gumtree rapist lured her into shed

A Belgian backpacker who was held hostage by a Gumtree rapist on a South Australian farm has revealed how her attacker lured her into a pig shed and coaxed her into lying face down. 

Davine Arckens, 26, spoke of her terrifying ordeal for the first time in an emotional interview with 60 Minutes

The avid traveller was hoping to meet her visa requirements while visiting Australia and had posted an advertisement seeking short-term work in February 2017.

Davine (pictured right during her rescue) has spoken about how she escaped the violent Gumtree rapist who kept her hostage in a South Australian farm 

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)

After receiving a response from a man offering jobs to backpackers, Davine thought her prayers had been answered – but in reality, her nightmare was just beginning.  

Under a phony name of ‘Max’, 54-year-old Gene Bristow offered her employment on a pig farm, claiming he was part of a network of farms hiring foreigners.  

‘He spoke about another French girl who was recently going to another farm, so that made me feel a bit more reassured, like, “okay, there are other people doing this job just like me”‘, Davine said. 

Bristow arranged to pick her up at a bus station before going on a drawn-out, two-hour drive to their destination to make her believe she was travelling to a remote area. 

When they finally arrived at the property in Meningie, located 150km southeast of Adelaide, Bristow would continue his charade for a little bit longer, showing Davine around the farm. 

‘We got to the shed and he was still explaining, “this is where you raise the calves, this is where you will feed them'”, she said. 

‘I didn’t expect anything to happen.’

Gene Charles Bristow lured a 24-year-old backpacker to his hobby farm in Meningie under false pretenses in February 2017

Bristow (pictured during a police search before his arrest) had taken her phone, but left her luggage holding her laptop in the shed with her

Bristow confiscated her phone but forgot to take her bag which, unbeknownst to him, contained her laptop, and she was able to contact fellow backpacker and friend Echo Wang 

She then revealed how her attacker was able to get her in a vulnerable position by requesting to examine her for signs of drug use. 

‘He wanted to make sure I wasn’t doing any of the drugs, because he told me he had problems before. He wanted to look for needle marks’, Davine said. 

Bristow instructed her to lie down so that he could check her feet, legs, arms and other body parts.  

‘He was really looking at my feet for a while, then suddenly he just got on my back and that was it’, she said.  

From there, a struggle ensued between the two before Bristow pulled out a gun, later revealed to be fake. 

‘He put something against my back and said it was a gun. I thought it was over.   

‘So then I gave up because I thought if I keep struggling he would just shoot me. So, I stopped.’

Bristow then chained her up by one leg and one arm, and sexually abused her.

He instructed her to be nude at all times and threatened to kill her if she tried to escape.   

Bristow confiscated her phone but forgot to take her backpack which contained her laptop.   

After he left the shed, Davine found discarded hooks in the pig shed which she was able to use to break free from the chains. 

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 (pictured)

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

She powered up her laptop and using a portable Wi-Fi USB, immediately began sending distress signals to family, her friend, fellow backpacker Echo Wang,  as well as South Australia Police.  

‘I crossed with 2 ferries.

‘Don’t know where I am.

‘I got chains loose.

‘Please call police,’ her frantic messages to Ms Wang read.  

Davine didn’t know her exact location but was able to tell police she was picked up by a man in a red ute at Murray Bridge. 

From there, police were able to track her location.    

Davine said she was initially surprised her plan worked but knew she had to be calculated in her next move.   

So instead of attempting a daring escape, she chained herself back up so as to not alert her captor and trusted that authorities would come to her rescue.

Bristow released Davine the following day after police swarmed the area in search of the missing backpacker. 

He was found guilty by a jury in March of one count of aggravated kidnapping, two counts of rape, two counts of indecent ­assault, and one count of attempted rape. 

Davine previously told the court she was certain she would die.

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

‘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. 

Further evidence, which was not included in the trial, revealed the farmer had conducted internet searches for Rohypnol, commonly known as a date-rape drug, and Tasers just four weeks before he abducted Davina.

He also reportedly searched on eBay for handcuffs, shackles, and a toy gun prior to the assault.

Authorities never found drugs or Tasers but prosecutors argued the searches proved the attack was premeditated. 

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