Four charged with backpacker rape and torture

Four men were charged today with torturing and raping a New Zealand man for almost 16 hours at a warehouse in the Australian city of Brisbane, police said.

Detective Inspector Ben Hanbridge said the 19-year-old backpacker, who had recently arrived in Australia, suffered broken bones, burns, cuts and bruises from the assault, which began on Friday night and ended on Saturday.

The man, from the Otago region of New Zealand’s south island, was being treated at a Brisbane hospital.

Police arrested three men, one aged 28 and two aged 26 on Saturday, and charged them today with attempted murder, torture, rape, assault, armed robbery and burglary. A fourth man in his 30s was arrested today and charged with the same offences, and police were looking for a fifth man, they said.

The four already charged are to appear in Brisbane Magistrates’ Court on Monday. It was not immediately known what maximum penalty they could face if convicted.

Mr Hanbridge said the warehouse was known to be occupied by squatters.

He said the victim, who has not been named, had been robbed and it appeared his torturers were trying to extract information from him, but no clear motive had been determined.

“He just turned up in this park and met these people, they befriended him and invited him back to this place here and unbeknownst to him they had obviously had other intentions,” he said.

“He was held against his will. He was tied to a chair and he was fairly viciously assaulted throughout the course of the night,” he said.

After a tip-off from a member of the public, police raided the warehouse on Saturday morning and found the three men sleeping on the floor near the backpacker, who was still tied to a chair, police said.