Backpacker's living hell

A New Zealand backpacker held hostage, stripped, burnt and bashed with a cricket bat by a group of homeless men has spoken for the first time about the "living hell" he endured.

In excerpts from a victim impact statement, Aryan Hendrickson revealed the horror he suffered at the hands of five homeless men who beat and tortured him for more than eight hours.

"It was going to be really cool, a big adventure," the 20-year-old intellectually-handicapped man said in his victim impact report to the Supreme Court in Brisbane. "It was pretty much the opposite. It turned into a living hell."

On June 19, 2003, the then 18-year-old backpacker got off a plane from Auckland at Brisbane Airport and headed into the city, booking into a local hostel before going for a walk, registering for a tax file number and setting up a local bank account, ready for when he found work.

It was on a street corner later that night that he met Michael Alan Cowie, who sold him some drugs for $50.

The next day, near his Roma St hostel, he ran into Cowie and two of his mates by chance and complained the drugs had not worked.

They went for a walk to the men's squat in an abandoned South Brisbane warehouse.

It was there he was tortured for hours as Cowie and four other homeless men tried to force him to reveal the PIN to his ATM card.

Mr Hendrickson was tied up, hooded with a pillow case, thrown on to the floor in the corner and later stripped naked - and then for more than eight hours kicked, punched and whipped.

A rope and length of chain were tightened around his neck and he was beaten with a cricket bat and electrical cord. His fingers were broken and his legs, toes and buttocks were repeatedly burned.

Mr Hendrickson's attackers then took his room key and ransacked his hostel room.

The backpacker spent six days in hospital and has been left with permanent damage to his right eye and psychological scarring.

This week Cowie, 28, was jailed for 12 years while four other men will serve between two and eight years each.

THE STORY SO FAR

June 19, 2003: Aryan Hendrickson meets Michael Alan Cowie in Brisbane and buys drugs.

June 20: The next day Hendrickson runs into Cowie and two of his mates and complains the drugs have not worked. That night he is tortured for hours as Cowie and four other men try to force him to reveal the PIN to his ATM card.

June 21: A tip-off leads police to the squat where Cowie and his friends are arrested.

Feb 16, 2005: Cowie jailed for 12 years for supplying a dangerous drug and one count each of torture, kidnapping and receiving.

- Herald on Sunday