British backpacker who was kidnapped and raped in Australian outback vows to return to live new life

British backpacker Elisha Greer who was kidnapped and raped while in Australia has vowed to return to the country

A British backpacker forced to drive through the outback at gunpoint while being beaten and raped by a drug-crazed drifter has vowed to return to Australia to start a new life.

Elisha Greer, from Liverpool, made headlines around the world in early 2017 when she survived weeks of terror at the hands of madman Marcus Martin.

The then 22-year-old was backpacking when she was forced to drive 1,000 miles through the outback by Martin and suffered a month of physical and sexual abuse.

Ms Greer was eventually rescued five weeks later after a petrol station worker spotted her looking ‘like a zombie in a state of shock’ and called police. 

Martin, 27, was jailed for ten years back in 2019 but now Ms Greer has said she plans to return to the country to start a life there despite the fact Martin will one day be released.

Speaking to the Mirror, she said: ‘I’m not going to be broken and my life won’t be defined by what he’s done.

‘I’ve always wanted to live in Australia and I’m going to do it. He’ll be free one day but I’m not afraid of him. I won’t let him rule my life.’ 

Ms Greer, who waived her right to anonymity in the wake of the horrific attack, added: ‘The worst has already happened. What else can he do?’

Hairdresser Ms Greer met Martin in Cairns in January 2017 at an outdoor dance party and said he initially seemed normal when their relationship began.

‘Yeah he seemed fun, he didn’t seem like a psycho,’ she previously revealed.

At the time, friends said the backpacker appeared to be under her attacker’s ‘spell’.

Within days the relationship began to sour as he became ‘obsessive and clingy.’

Elisha Greer was backpacking in Australia when she met Martin who forced her to drive 1,000 miles through the outback while subjecting her to weeks of physical and sexual abuse

Marcus Martin (left) was jailed for 10 years for horrific abuse of backpacker Elisha Greer (right)

During the kidnapping ordeal, Martin, who threw away her passport, was said to have choked Elisha as he told her it was ‘time to go to sleep’.

Prosecutors also told the court he had thrown away her birth control pills ‘so she would never leave him because she would have his child’.

Martin raped Ms Greer in a hotel room in Cairns before kidnapping her and from March 1, he made her drive south for five days before the case culminated in the regional town of Mitchell.

Ms Greer had been driving a white Mitsubishi Pajero through Mitchell when she stopped at a petrol station to fill up.

The service station attendant, Beverley Page, remembered her being in a ‘state of shock when she came in, almost zombie like’.

The attendant said she had tears streaming down her face and was unable to pay for the fuel. 

Elisha (pictured, right, after being rescued) came to the attention of a petrol station attendant who was concerned and called the police after Ms Greer left without paying. Police eventually stopped the vehicle and found Marcus Martin hiding in a hidden compartment in the back

The attendant had decided to follow the car to see if something was wrong, but called police immediately when Ms Greer took off without paying. 

A dramatic rescue took place hours later when police pulled over the four-wheel drive, finding the distraught and badly beaten Ms Greer at the wheel.

An inspection of the car revealed her captor hiding in the back.

Martin was arrested and charged before pleading guilty to three counts of rape and one count of deprivation of liberty. 

He earlier pleaded guilty to supplying dangerous drugs, wilful damage, assault occasioning bodily harm and strangulation.

Prosecutors discontinued ten other charges of rape, cruelty to animals, and torture.

Elisha later 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.’

Elisha said she struggled with alcohol after her ordeal when she return home to the UK and that she has had two relationships but finds it difficult to trust men.

She told the Mirror: ‘It’s difficult because of what I’ve been through and the last two relationships ended after they cheated so that’s made things even harder.’

Ms Greer said she hopes to be an inspiration to other women who have been through something similar and that her family has been supportive of her plans to move to Australia.