Alleged rapist Gene Charles Bristow admits to using fake name - ABC News

A man accused of abducting and raping a European backpacker has admitted to using a fake name when responding to the young woman's Gumtree ad looking for farm work.

Key points:

Gene Charles Bristow is accused of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a backpacker
Mr Bristow told the jury the woman was "content" to camp in a shed
He did not tell his wife because he thought she would consider it a waste of money

Gene Charles Bristow, 54, went on trial in Adelaide's District Court earlier this month after pleading not guilty to aggravated kidnapping, rape and indecent assault.

He is accused of committing the offences at his Meningie property in February 2017.

According to the prosecution, Mr Bristow lured the 24-year-old woman to his property after responding to her Gumtree advertisement looking for farm work and then held her captive for two days in an old pig shed.

Prosecutor Michael Foundas said an email trail showed Mr Bristow told the backpacker his name was Mark and that the farm was at Lameroo, east of Adelaide.

While on the stand today, Mr Bristow told the jury he used a fake name online to "protect himself".

"You can call yourself what you like online," he said.

"You can be anybody you like online, doesn't mean there is anything sinister in it.

"I've been burnt online … the reason I give another identity online is to protect myself."

Mr Foundas said the accused falsely told the backpacker the farm was one of several in South Australia owned by a company called "Genesis Inc" and that there was a vacancy because a French girl had just left to fill another job.

Accused denied restraining backpacker

In her evidence to the court, the backpacker said she thought she was going to die when she was chained and shackled in an old pig shed on the 40-hectare property.

The court heard the pig shed was not visible from the main house where the accused lived with his wife, his son and his son's partner.

Mr Bristow argued the woman worked on the farm, agreed to camp in the shed and only left because she could not handle the heat.

He told the court he never restrained or sexually assaulted the backpacker or told her that he was part of a sex slave ring that shipped women to Sydney.

"She was never chained up in my shed … she was never detained against her will," he said.

"She was on my property of her own free will … and she left of her own free will."

Bristow described his family as 'private'

Mr Bristow said he did not tell his wife that he had a backpacker staying in their shed because they were a "private family".

"My wife describes us as a private family, we don't let strangers into our lives very easily … we have been taken advantage of financially," he said.

He told the court he was unemployed at the time and his wife would have been upset about him spending money on a farmhand.

"The whole family had been on my back about getting a job," Mr Bristow said.

"My wife wouldn't be too happy about what she would consider is wasting money on paying somebody else."

Mr Bristow told the jury the backpacker was "content" to camp in the shed and that he told her the main residence "was just up the lane" if she wanted a shower or needed anything.

"If she needed anything at all she only had to ask," he said.

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