Outback Rapist Jailed For Backpacker Attack

An Australian man who kidnapped, drugged, tied up and raped a German backpacker has been jailed for nine years.

Peter Van de Wetering's attack drew comparisons to the horror film Wolf Creek, in which backpackers are taken captive and killed in the Australian outback.

The 48-year-old kidnapped and raped the 19-year-old woman in August 2013 - two weeks after she arrived in Australia.

The court heard how he spent months planning the attack, finding a remote location to carry out the crime and buying a wig, fake beard and moustache to use as a disguise.

He picked up his victim at a bus stop in the rural town of Cottonvale, about 120 miles southwest Brisbane, after she replied to an advert looking for a nanny and farmhand.

He took her to a sheep-shearing shed and bound her with cable ties, force-fed her sedative-laced chocolate, then sexually assaulted her.

She woke the next morning by the side of a rural road.

Brisbane District Court Judge Terry Martin told Van de Wetering: "This offending involves an entirely ruthless pursuit of a young and innocent woman for your sexual gratification."

Judge Martin described the attack as "terrifying and degrading"

Despite pleading guilty, the judge said Van De Wetering had shown no remorse for the assault.

The court heard that nearly three years after the attack, the woman has physical and emotional scars.

Her wrists were scarred from the tightly bound cable ties for more than a year, and she is still scared of the dark.

As a serious violent offender, he will have to serve at least 80% of his prison term.