'His eyes were wide like a serial killer's': British backpacker reveals how she was 'kidnapped' in Australian hostel

Mary Kate Heys, 20, from Manchester was 'kidnapped' from a hostel in Mooloolaba on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia. Photo / Daily Mail Australia

A British backpacker allegedly kidnapped in Australia has told of the terrifying two hours where she was held captive by a 'mentally unstable' man who she feared may never let her go.

Mary Kate 'Miri' Heys, 20, was forced to use Google maps to reveal her location to her father Antony in England, who then alerted Queensland police to her plight, when a Swedish backpacker she had befriended over the past two weeks took her hostage in the early hours of Monday morning.

The shaken young woman, from Manchester, told the Daily Mail she agreed to go on an "adventure" with the 23-year-old man, who was also a backpacker at a Sunshine Coast hostel, but when his demeanor changed and he began "ranting about aliens", she feared the worst.

"Looking back his eyes were really wide - like a serial killer's - I should have known something was not right but I went with him".

Recounting her horror experience, Miss Heys said as the impromptu trip from Mooloolaba to Gympie, north of Brisbane, continued, the man instructed her to "look for blacked out cars", which he said would belong to aliens.

"He lost the plot yesterday - he was a normal person and just snapped."

"He kept talking about aliens and conspiracy theories, He kept telling me I was special and I was the one, and that I was like him."

"He seemed crazy and I didn't know what he was capable of," Heys said.

She added: "I had no reason not to trust him, we had spent every day together."

Heys and the man had been staying at the same hostel, when he knocked on her door at 4.30am.

"I heard someone run down the hallway and then there was a knock on the door.

"I got up and answered the door and he was already half way down the hallway - but he ran back and told me to come on an adventure to Brisbane with him.

The young backbacker from Manchester hopped in the car - but her driver headed north not south towards Brisbane as he had promised.

"He told me to only take my most important belongings - and even wanted me to leave my phone behind - but I insisted on bringing it.

"I was worried about what he was going to do because he had left everything behind including his phone and computer. He only had cash on him."

'He told me we were actually going to Cairns - I didn't want to go for an 18-hour drive and started to get worried.

"He had gone crazy, I thought I was going to die, but I just tried to stay calm so that he wouldn't flip out and kill me."

Mary Kate Heys is in Australia and has been sharing pictures of her travels. Photo / via Instagram

The young woman tried to get help at a petrol station about 20 minutes north of the pair's hostel in Mooloolaba - asking the attendant to take down the details of the car and contact police.

"I told her that the man I was with wouldn't let me out of the car," she said.

"People have asked me why I didn't run when I had the chance at the service station - but I was honestly too scared I didn't want to do anything to make him angry and was trying to stay calm so he wouldn't hurt me."

After spending another hour in the car with her friend turned captor Heys decided it was time to ask her father - who lives on the other side of the world - for help.

"I messaged my dad and asked him to call the police, I just kept sending him my location - pretending the GPS was broken.

The young girl's messages to her father reveal her fear as she traveled up the Bruce highway towards Cairns.

Her messages started: "Dad, are you awake? I need you to call Australian police."

She then sent: "I've been taken by a man... please hurry."

"I don't think he is dangerous," the messages to her father read.

But they quickly escalated.

"He said he is taking me to Gaines (Cairns)."

"He thinks he is an alien."

"I am getting scared."

The young woman continued to share her location with her distraught father who kept messaging in to make sure she was okay.

She managed to message him when police pulled over her friend at Gympie, 85 kilometres north of the hostel.

She said she jumped out of the car before it had stopped and 'ran for her life' towards the safety of police.

"I am with them (police) now, I will call you when I finish with them," she wrote.

She has since been in contact with her loved ones, and returned to the hostel.

"Dad is just relieved that I am safe - but still really shocked about what happened," she said.

"You don't expect anything to happen like this because Australia is supposed to be just like the UK but hotter."

The young brunette was supposed to stay in Australia for a year but wants to head home to her parents.

"I am all shook up," she told Daily Mail.

"Every time I hear a noise I jump. I just don't feel safe - I want to go home and maybe come back in a few months once I have calmed down."

But surprisingly her parents - who played an important role in getting her out of harm's way want her to continue with her holiday.

"They keep saying that I have only been here for two weeks and I should just stay," she said.

"I will make my decision in a few days - but at the moment I think I want to get on that plane."

The backpackers met through mutual friends and formed a strong bond because they were staying at the same hostel.

"I came to Mooloolaba first because my friend lives down the road," she told Daily Mail.

"He (the man she claims kidnapped her) is friends with my friend's boyfriend - which is how we met.

"Since then I have spent every day with him and three of his friends - who are all so shocked by what happened."

The 20-year-old backpacker posted a photograph of herself in the back of a police car after she was rescued.

The caption read: "I feel like I'm dreaming".

The man she embarked on the ill-fated road trip with is still in hospital - she says her friends have since told her he has suffered from mental health issues in the past.

A Queensland police spokesman told the Mirror: "Basically what happened was they have gotten in a car down at the Sunshine Coast and they have driven up to Gympie.

"She has said that she was being held against her will. So it was a deprivation of liberty job. Police have then pulled the car over in Gympie.

"They have spoken to both parties involved. He was then taken to the hospital but I believe he did go to the mental health unit there.

"Then the woman has told police she did not want any further action taken on it. Basically, not press any charges.

"There is no further action from our end."

She has decided not to press charges and says she hopes he gets better.