British backpacker nearly had eyes gouged out by rapist who kidnapped her

A British woman who suffered terrible abuse at the hands of a man who kidnapped her has revealed more details about the shocking incident.

Elisha Greer, 23, was backpacking around Australia when she was grabbed by tattoo-faced Marcus Martin, 24, in Cairns, north Queensland, in January 2017.

The two had first seen each other at an outdoor party but Martin turned violent when they met up again.

He went on to rape and beat her repeatedly over a period of five weeks before Mitchell town petrol station worker Beverley Page called the police after seeing her with black eyes.

Ms Greer, from Liverpool, told the Daily Mail: ‘He shattered my nose so that it had to be rebuilt in hospital. The cartilage exploded out the side.

‘He tried to gouge out my eyes. He smashed my legs so I could hardly walk.’

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She said she was too scared to call for help and added many people had seen her bruises but did nothing.

Ms Greer described how one time a mum told her young daughter to be quiet in McDonald’s after she asked what was wrong with her bruised face.

Martin, who had held a gun to her head and forced her to drive more than 900 miles through the Australian Outback, pleaded guilty to three counts of rape and one count of deprivation of liberty in October.

Ms Greer, who waived her right to anonymity as a victim of a sexual assault, described him as ‘completely and utterly crazy’ in an interview with Australian TV programme Sunday Night.

She said he did not seem ‘like a psycho’ at first but he became ‘obsessive and clingy’.

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Ms Greer added: ‘I just want people to know it’s okay… that being a victim isn’t the end of everything and that everyone can get through something. ‘I want people to know that it’s not the end for them.’

Ms Greer had to undergo surgery to fix her nose but has since returned to the UK and is currently working as a barber.

She added: ‘Why shouldn’t we speak out when we have done nothing wrong?

‘I think I just want to let people know that it hasn’t destroyed me. He hasn’t won.’

Martin is due to be sentenced on May 28.