Backpacker who was kidnapped and raped on Australian farm used Facebook to raise alarm

A backpacker has told how she sent desperate pleas for help over Facebook after being chained up and sexually abused by a farmer in Australia.

Davine Arckens, from Belgium, waived her right to anonymity to describe her two-day ordeal in February 2017 after Gene Charles Bristow was convicted of her kidnap and rape.

The 24-year-old told 60 Minutes Australia she was lured to a pig shed in Meningie, South Australia, after she placed an advert on the Gumtree website in a bid to find work.

After Bristow demanded to check her body for needle marks to ensure she was not a drug user, Ms Arckens said he lunged on her, pulled her arms behind her back and threatened to shoot her if she did not do what he said.

She said Bristow, 54, used cable ties then chains to bind her wrists and shackle both her legs, then stripped her naked and sexually abused her.

"I was just stuck there and I thought it would take a while for people to notice I was gone or even to find me," she told 60 Minutes.

"I was like: 'I'm not getting out of here. This is it. This is where I'm going to die.'"

Ms Arckens spotted small metal hooks for binding wool bales in the shed and used them to loosen the shackles and set herself free.

She used a laptop and WiFi stick hidden in her bag to log onto Facebook and sent desperate messages for help.

Her friend, fellow backpacker Echo Wang, who was in Far North Queensland, picked up Ms Arckens' Facebook messages and immediately raised the alarm.

Describing Ms Wang, Ms Arckens told 60 Minutes: "She's like a hero for me. She helped me, she was there for me. She took action."

Ms Arckens said she put her shackles back on and waited for help as detectives used signals from her phone to track her location.

After police appealed to the public for information, she said Bristow dropped her off at a nearby motel before officers raided his farm and arrested him.

He was jailed last month for at least 12-and-a-half years after being found guilty of kidnap and rape, Sky News Australia reported.

Bristow's son David told 60 Minutes Australia that he was "disgusted" by his father's actions, adding: "Rot in hell. You get what you deserve."

Bristow is likely to be deported to the UK, where he grew up, following his sentence, according to reports.

It came as several young backpackers said they had been subjected to rape threats and abuse in Australia amid fears the country's working holiday visa programme could be exploited.

An investigation by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) uncovered widespread mistreatment of those on the scheme, in which travellers aged 18 to 30 agree to work in rural industries in exchange for an extended stay in the country.

British backpacker Frances Fairs told ABC that a hostel owner in a remote part of Victoria, southeastern Australia, threatened to rape her if she refused his advances.

"He called me into his office and was like 'right here is the deal, you either sleep with me and my girlfriend or I rape you. Pick one'," she said.

There are fears that more travellers will face abuse and exploitation if they work in isolated parts of Australia for longer periods under plans by the country's government to lengthen the working visa programme.

Under new rules, the scheme will be extended to allow young backpackers to remain in Australia for a third year if they carry out specified work for six months.

Australia's department of home affairs told ABC it had established a migrant workers' task force in an effort to reduce exploitation by unscrupulous employers.