Justice for brave, bloodied backpackers

For AAP and published by 9 News and other publications

The beach at Salt Creek is a long way from anywhere, particularly Germany and Brazil.

It's only accessible by 4WD and even then it's a tough slog through rugged sand dunes. Most people go there to fish for mulloway.

So when two young female backpackers arrived at the beach with an older man, who they'd only met that day, they felt it was weird.

But German tourist Lena Rabente and her Brazilian friend, whose surname can’t be published, figured they were together so they would be safe.

It was on those sand dunes, in South Australia's Coorong National Park, where 60-year-old Roman Heinze violently attacked them.

He hit Lena over the head with a hammer four times and when she ran away he chased her in his 4WD, sending her flying off the bull bar.

Moments earlier he had dragged the Brazilian woman to the ground, tied her up and sexually assaulted her.

He was big, six foot six, and they were small but brave — and they escaped the savage ordeal in February 2016.

In the SA Supreme Court, Heinze was found guilty of six charges over the attack, including aggravated kidnapping, indecent assault, endangering life and aggravated assault.

Commissioner for Victims' Rights Michael O'Connell said the verdicts give both young women a sense of justice.

"They are beautiful young people who now deserve the sense of justice that's been given to them," he said outside court.

Heinze was later jailed for at last 17 years for what the judge described as a “depraved” attack.

The story begins with an advertisement Beatriz had posted to Gumtree while looking for a ride from Adelaide to Melbourne.

Heinze offered to take them, picking them up at a train station and driving them east to Salt Creek.

He navigated the steep sand dunes and drove far along the beach before setting up camp.

Lena was taking a nap when Heinze offered to take the Brazilian backpacker for a walk to spot kangaroos.

"I thought, that's really nice. You come to Australia to see kangaroos," she said with smile during her evidence.

But when she tried to turn back, Heinze grabbed her by the neck, pulled her to the sand and sat on her chest.

He pulled out a knife, tied her hands behind her back with rope, cut off her bikini and began touching and kissing her.

"It was like I was in the horror movies," she said.

"I imagined my mum coming there and seeing my dead body.

"I thought, no, I'm not going to die today. I came to Australia to live my dream."

To stop the attack, she told him they would be more comfortable back at the tents.

But as they neared the camp he changed direction, and the Brazilian woman screamed for help.

Lena was roused from her sleep and came across the awful scene. She yelled at Heinze to stop but instead he came after her with a hammer, hitting her over the head.

"It was like I was on a boat suddenly," Lena recalled of that dizzy moment.

"I was like, OK, that's it. That's the end. I saw myself already buried in the sand.

"I was thinking of my parents, that they would never see me again."

She suffered four deep, tearing lacerations on her scalp that left her drenched in blood but she fought back and broke free.

Then Heinze hopped in his 4WD and came roaring after Lena as she fled, ramming her repeatedly.

At one point he drove right over her, the heavy wheels passing either side of her body. Lena couldn't run away, so she changed tact.

"I jumped on the bonnet and I held on to an antenna," she said. "And I climbed up to the roof."

Prosecutor Jim Pearce QC made note of the woman's clear-thinking, which might have saved her life during the ordeal.

"She was a woman who was very determined to survive," he said.

"She had to think her way through in order to survive."

Mr Pearce commended both backpackers for their courage on the beach and their honest accounts in court.

"These two women were very brave," he said.

"They're very different but each individually impressive in their own way."

The Brazilian flagged down a family in a car, running onto the road naked and distraught.

Lena stumbled down the beach into the arms of a group of young Victorian fishermen, covered in blood from head to toe.

"She was just in horrible shape," Melbourne man Jack Dowson said. "Her hair was matted, blood everywhere."

The attacker was arrested in his car but the hammer, knife and rope used in the attacks were never found.

Defence lawyer Bill Boucaut SC said this was one of a number of "odd features" of the case that he claimed sparked doubt about what happened.

"Where are these things? It is more than a bit of a mystery," Mr Boucaut told the jury.

The trial heard from both victims, police, fishermen, a roadhouse owner and forensic and DNA experts.

The story has been updated to include previously suppressed names.