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A year into Elisha Greer’s adventure-of-a-lifetime backpacking around Australia, the 21-year-old phoned home to ask a favour. Would her parents, back in Liverpool, consider lending her some money to help her buy a car?

‘It was a thing a lot of backpackers did,’ she explains. ‘I’d already saved half the money, working in pubs and on farms, but needed about £650 more. I’d seen the one I wanted. It was older than me but I fell in love with it.’

Her parents aren’t wealthy (her dad is a site manager for a building firm, her mum works with vulnerable youngsters), but didn’t need much convincing. After all, what price can you put on a daughter’s security?

Elisha says safety was the deciding factor. ‘I tried my dad first — I’m a proper daddy’s girl — and I remember saying: “If I have a car, I won’t be hitch-hiking any more.” Immediately my mum said to my dad: “Get her a car.” ’

Elisha Greer’s adventure-of-a-lifetime backpacking around Australia turned sour after she met Marcus Martin 

Yet by the cruellest of ironies, it was the car that ultimately led her into danger when she met another traveller who needed a lift.

That young man was Marcus Martin — not that Elisha will use his name. (‘I can’t say it. I can’t even bear to hear it,’ she says.)

Martin, 24, is now in prison in Australia after pleading guilty to abducting and raping Elisha and will be sentenced later this month. Here, in her first newspaper interview, Elisha has decided to share the full details of her ordeal.

The bare outline of his crime is astonishing enough. After holding Elisha against her will, sexually abusing her and throwing away her contraception in a bizarre bid to get her pregnant, Martin forced her on a 1,000-mile, three-day road trip across Australia — making her drive at knifepoint in her own car.

Hearing Elisha catalogue the injuries he inflicted is even more horrifying. Over a period of three weeks before that terrifying cross-country drive, Martin attacked her repeatedly.

She points to a scar on her nose, another above her eye. ‘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.’

Martin, 24 (pictured), is now in prison in Australia after pleading guilty to abducting and raping Elisha and will be sentenced later this month

He held Elisha against her will, he sexually abusing her, bashing her and threw away her contraception in a bizarre bid to get her pregnant. ‘He said outright he wanted to get me pregnant. His way of keeping me, I suppose’

She believes around 100 people must have seen her battered face — shockingly recorded in police photographs — in the final days she was in his clutches.

She was too afraid to call for help, she explains, but made desperate attempts to communicate her distress to strangers. ‘When he had me in the car, I would try to make eye contact with anyone and just stare out the window — the sort of look that forces someone to ask: “What are you looking at?”

‘But people would just look away. One time, in the toilets of a McDonald’s, a little girl asked her mum: “What’s wrong with that lady’s face?” Her mum told her to be quiet and hurried her away. I wonder if she will read this now?’

And yet it’s hard to blame strangers for failing to act because at no point did Elisha clearly ask for assistance. There were chances — she even had a slit in her eyebrow stitched up in A&E. At one point she did try, scribbling a note in a hotel visitors’ book.

But not once did she scream for help. Even when police became involved — not because she was in distress but as the result of an unpaid petrol bill — Elisha initially stayed mute. Why?

‘Fear,’ she says. ‘I genuinely thought he would kill me himself, or he would have me killed. He manipulated me. He made me feel I had no choice but to go along with him. Why did I do it? Because I wanted to live.’

Martin forced her on a 1,000-mile, three-day road trip across Australia — making her drive at knifepoint in her own car 

 In January 2017, she was living in Cairns in Far North Queensland, where she attended an outdoor party as part of Australia Day celebrations and met 22-year-old Marcus Martin (pictured)

I meet Elisha at a Liverpool hotel not far from her family home. She is 24 now, a pretty and bubbly young woman with blonde hair and manicured nails. Nothing about her screams ‘victim’.

She’s ‘not soft’, she laughs, in a not-soft Scouse accent. ‘My mum always says me and my brother got mixed up at birth. I’m quite tough, into cars and motorbikes.

‘When my friends found out I was the backpacker who had been kidnapped, they couldn’t believe it,’ she shrugs. ‘It goes to show it can be anyone.’

It was Elisha’s mum, back in 2015, who suggested she go travelling. She’d been working in a bar but had a godfather in Oz.

‘I’d trained as a barber and hairdresser so it was no problem getting work. The money was good. I’d stay in one place for a while, then move on.’ On the famous Gold Coast, she rented an apartment with another backpacker. She stayed in caravan parks, even in shipping containers with other farm workers.

By January 2017, she was living in Cairns in Far North Queensland, where she attended an outdoor party as part of Australia Day celebrations. It was there she met 22-year-old Marcus Martin, who was outwardly chatty and fun. 

A few days later, he texted to ask if she wanted to meet again — as friends, she insists. They visited local waterfalls and ate sushi. ‘It wasn’t even a date. I was just hungry.’ Australian police say they had a romance that went sour, but Elisha is adamant that was not the case

After a few weeks together, he produced a gun ‘for protection’. He was involved with drug dealing and gangs. He would use drugs, too. Elisha insists that she was not involved

None of the police pictures of him look remotely fun — he is heavily tattooed on the face, with a menacing expression — but she insists he seemed ‘perfectly normal, not a psycho at all. When you are a backpacker you meet all sorts. He seemed fine.’

The warning bells really started a few weeks later when they went drinking at the Colonial Club in Cairns, a backpackers’ favourite, and Martin got horribly drunk

Marcus said he needed a lift home, about an hour away. ‘He told me his mum had committed suicide. I felt a bit sorry for him.’

There was no mention of the fact that Martin was on the run after beating up the mother of his child and holding her hostage.

A few days later, he texted to ask if she wanted to meet again — as friends, she insists.

They visited local waterfalls and ate sushi. ‘It wasn’t even a date. I was just hungry.’

Australian police say they had a romance that went sour, but Elisha is adamant that was not the case.

‘No. Nothing like that. But he had a dog, Ninja. I loved that dog, and the dog loved me.’ Still, it is hard to understand why she couldn’t see that Martin was trouble. After a few weeks, he produced a gun ‘for protection’.

He was involved with drug dealing and gangs. He would use drugs, too. Elisha insists that she was not involved. 

‘That night I got a text from someone else — something innocent saying I was “cute” — and he went nuts. He smashed up the hotel room, overturned the beds and was rummaging round the cupboards saying I’d taken something from him

'He was like an animal, a madman. He beat me up, choked me. I passed out. I don’t know how' she said

The warning bells really started a few weeks later when they went drinking at the Colonial Club in Cairns, a backpackers’ favourite, and Martin got horribly drunk.

‘It was the first time I’d really seen him drunk, and he just flipped.’ He told fellow revellers Elisha was his partner. ‘He introduced me as his “missus”.

‘That night I got a text from someone else — something innocent saying I was “cute” — and he went nuts. He smashed up the hotel room, overturned the beds and was rummaging round the cupboards saying I’d taken something from him. He was like an animal, a madman. He beat me up, choked me. I passed out. I don’t know how long for.’

Elisha continued: ‘Afterwards, he took my passport, my phone. He had the car. In my head, the best thing to do was go along with him and that way I’d get away.’ She was, it seems, his hostage from this point, even if he didn’t have a knife to her throat — not all the time anyway

He also raped Elisha.

‘I don’t want to talk about that bit. It goes a bit fuzzy.

‘Even now, I have gaps in my memory. My friends will be talking about something we did recently, and I’ll say “I wasn’t there”, and they say, “Yes you were”. It’s odd.’ She says she’d always imagined she would fight an attacker off, but terror took over.

‘I probably could have taken him out, if I’d tried. But he was still stronger than me. I was scared. I just wanted it to be over.’

She didn’t scream for help or run. ‘Where would I have gone?

‘Afterwards, he took my passport, my phone. He had the car. In my head, the best thing to do was go along with him and that way I’d get away.’ She was, it seems, his hostage from this point, even if he didn’t have a knife to her throat — not all the time anyway.

Over the next few weeks the pair moved around Cairns, switching hotel rooms to take advantage of cheap accommodation deals.

‘It’s all surreal. He didn’t want me out of his sight. He’d whisper to me, “You are fat”, and “No one would want you”.’

She can’t say for sure how many times he raped her over the next few weeks. She lost count, although he was originally charged with eight counts (‘although if it happens at the same time, multiple times, it counts as once in Australian law’).

Did they ever have consensual sex? ‘Never.’

Over the next few weeks the pair moved around Cairns, switching hotel rooms to take advantage of cheap accommodation deals. She can’t say for sure how many times he raped her. She lost count, although he was originally charged with eight counts

After he’d raped her or punched her, he would apologise.

‘He’d say he couldn’t help it.’ He threw away her contraceptive pills. ‘He said outright he wanted to get me pregnant. His way of keeping me, I suppose.’

She contemplated trying to get his knife while he was asleep, and stabbing him, but fear took over. ‘What if he woke up? What if it made it worse?’ She says he took pictures of them together, and sent them to her parents from her phone.

‘He’d say, “Look happy”.’ Her parents had no idea what was happening until police called them weeks later.

By now, Martin was out of control. ‘He’d rant that I was working for Interpol and go on about people being after him. He’d say they were after me, too.

‘I started to think I would either die at his hands, or theirs.’

The saga finally came to an end when a clearly distressed and ‘zombie-like’ Elisha walked into a garage in the town of Mitchell, south-central Queensland, and told the owner she had been beaten up and couldn’t afford fuel

Finally, Martin announced they were going on the run and that three-day road trip — supposedly to allow him to find work — began. Elisha drove. He would let her into shops and petrol stations, while he hid in the back of her car.

By this point her face was battered, some bruises yellowing with age, others fresh. Her eyes were black and so puffy they were almost closed

Sometimes as she drove, she would feel his knife in her back. She attempts to explain why she didn’t run.

‘I was too scared of what would happen if he thought I had snitched on him. I wanted him caught, but I didn’t want to be the one getting the police involved.’

By this point her face was battered, some bruises yellowing with age, others fresh. Her eyes were black and so puffy they were almost closed.

She told one petrol station worker she couldn’t pay for her fuel, and confided that her partner had beaten her up.

Instead of calling police, he paid for the fuel.

She says she felt utter despair. ‘I was trying to reach out, but no one was listening.’

The saga finally came to an end when a clearly distressed and ‘zombie-like’ Elisha walked into a garage in the town of Mitchell, south-central Queensland, and told the owner she had been beaten up and couldn’t afford fuel.

Then Elisha simply drove off.

The woman followed and called the police. When police finally pulled the car over, Elisha claims they were unconcerned about her injuries. 

Elisha gave them the number of her godfather Ian, who insisted that police put her on the phone. ‘That’s when I broke down, sobbing: “He will kill me, he will kill me.” He told them they had to check the car, and that’s when they got him

‘He was hiding in the back. They took me to the police station. All they wanted to know was did I know anyone who could pay my fuel bill?’ Elisha gave them the number of her godfather Ian, who insisted that police put her on the phone.

‘That’s when I broke down, sobbing: “He will kill me, he will kill me.” He told them they had to check the car, and that’s when they got him.

‘Even then one policeman — they played good cop, bad cop — called me a bitch and said I’d been hiding him from police. The next day, in hospital, he apologised.’

It’s an incredible story.

‘If you saw it in a film, you’d think “No way”,’ Elisha admits.

When asked if she’s had counselling, but she said she hasn’t. ‘I don’t like the way they talk to you, “So how are you?” — I talk to my friends.’ She can’t put into words how she feels about Martin, but it is ‘beyond hate’. She hopes he will never get out of prison

At first, she begged police not to call her parents. ‘I didn’t want to worry them, and I knew it would upset my mum. She flew out a few days later. She was in bits, crying.’

She still is. ‘In some ways, I’ve dealt with it better than she has.’

And what about her dad? ‘He can’t talk about it.’

Elisha flew back to the UK after her nose reconstruction surgery and began the task of rebuilding her life. She’s had boyfriends since, but nothing serious.

Elisha flew back to the UK after her nose reconstruction surgery and began the task of rebuilding her life. She’s had boyfriends since, but nothing serious. She hasn’t been travelling since, but wouldn’t rule it out. ‘I was just unlucky,’ she says

She started training as a veterinary nurse, but recently returned to barbering and hopes to do a further qualification.

She hasn’t been travelling since, but wouldn’t rule it out. ‘I was just unlucky,’ she says.

I ask if she’s had counselling, but she tells me she hasn’t. ‘I don’t like the way they talk to you, “So how are you?” — I talk to my friends.’

She can’t put into words how she feels about Martin, but it is ‘beyond hate’. She hopes he will never get out of prison.

She has been in touch with his previous partner, who has an uncannily similar story. ‘Hopefully, this is the end of it. He can’t hurt another woman.’

Speaking out is her way of taking control of the situation. ‘A friend of mine was almost raped recently.

‘She said: “I know it’s not as bad as what happened to you” — but it’s all relative, isn’t it? 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.’