By Michael Fowler/The Age
A woman was allegedly held captive, repeatedly raped and threatened with death for four days by a man she met through a dating app.
Darley man Robert Wilson, 32, allegedly imprisoned a 39-year-old Vietnamese woman in his home from March 25 to 29, raping her on multiple occasions, blackmailing her, stealing her money and asking her if she wanted to die while holding a crossbow to her head.
They met through dating app “Badoo” about two months ago, according to the victim’s statement.
The woman’s statement described how Mr Wilson’s behaviour became extremely controlling, forcing her to change her Facebook relationship status, deleting contacts on her phone that he “didn’t like the sound of”, then asked her to move in to his home around March 15.
She said he picked her up from her Ivanhoe workplace on March 25 and drove her to his Grey Street home in Darley, where he allegedly punched her in the head and face as she sat in his living room.
The woman fell to the ground, where Mr Wilson allegedly continued to rape her.
Mr Wilson took the woman’s bank cards, then strangled her and repeatedly asked “do you want to die?” because she refused to provide her bank login details.
Fearing for her life, the victim said she gave her bank details, which Mr Wilson used to transfer $3000 into his account.
On his second day of imprisoning the victim, Mr Wilson held a crossbow to her head and again asked if she wanted to die.
From March 26 to March 29, Mr Wilson allegedly repeatedly raped the woman, punching her in the head and face, hitting her arms with a silver bar and handcuffing her.
He allegedly threatened the victim, unable to see out of either eye by the third day of imprisonment, that he would turn her into a “money making machine” and charge other men to have sex with her.
When contacted by the woman’s friends via Facebook Messenger on March 28, Mr Wilson allegedly told them she’d go home the next day and showed them her body from a distance to prove she was OK.
He also allegedly blackmailed the victim, warning that he’d send an explicit photo of her to her friends and family if she told police, before driving her to her Richmond home on March 29.
The woman, who has lived in Australia for about three years, filed a report with police and went to hospital.
Police arrested Mr Wilson at his Darley home on Tuesday and allegedly found items including a crossbow and a spear gun.
In his statement to police, Mr Wilson said that he believed their relationship was over only once the woman unfriended him on Facebook on March 31.
He told police he punched the woman after she admitted to cheating on him with her ex-partner.
He said that she agreed to lend him money, they had consensual sex once a day during the four-day period and after their “domestic” they had agreed to work on their relationship.
Mr Wilson did not apply for bail and will appear in the Magistrates Court on Friday on seven charges, including three charges of rape and one of false imprisonment.
