Australian gets 17 years for raping, enslaving Dutch tourist

A 47 year old Australian man has been sentenced to 17 years in prison for holding a 21 year old Dutch backpacker hostage for 6 weeks and using her as his personal sex slave. He has to spend at least 13 years behind bars before becoming eligible for parole. According to Australian newspaper Herald Sun, Alfio Anthony Granata subjected the Dutch tourist to 6 weeks of assaults, death threats and sexual abuse while holding her hostage in a Preston apartment between November and December 2012. It took the prosecutors more than 90 minutes to read a summary of Granata's offenses in a County Court on Monday. Among other things, Granata forced his victim to have sex with him, beat her with a meat tenderizer and forced her to sleep undressed in a shower, sometimes for days on end. On one occasion he beat her until she spat blood into an envelope containing a passport photo, her hair and fingernail clippings. At times he attached a leash to her and forced her to act like a dog. He also used a kitchen knife to scratch a cross into her forehead saying that it meant she belonged to him and was "marked for death". Granata initially faced more than 100 charges, including 94 counts of assault, 62 counts of rape and 10 counts of threatening to kill. But after a deal with the prosecutors, he confessed and plead guilty for 16 charges. During sentencing, the judge called Granata's behavior "vile and repulsive", Herald Sun reports, telling Granata that the victim is now living a shattered life. "She's barely able to function", the judge said, adding that she is suffering from severe post traumatic stress and has become a recluse. "It's difficult to imagine the terror."