A weekend at Port Fairy Folk Festival over the weekend in Victoria turned into a nightmare for two siblings after accepting a ride from a man posing a security guard who then attempted to kidnap the young girl and perform a high speed getaway.
According to The Warrnambool Standard, the two siblings had organised a lift home to Warrnambool from the festival but had failed to meet up with their ride.
The woman, 21, and her brother, 16, ended up waiting around a nearby pub when around 2.30am they noticed a car driving around with a man looking at them. The man pulled up and explained that he was a security guard and was making sure everyone got home safely from the festival.
According to Detective Senior Constable Colin Ryan, of the Warrnambool police crime investigation unit “the woman jumped into the rear of the car and the boy in the front. The driver has then headed towards Warrnambool and got to the Rowans Lane Winery when he stopped on the highway.”
“The driver is alleged to have asked the lad to get three Jim Beam bourbon cans out of the boot,” he continued at a remand hearing early yesterday morning. “When the lad gets out, the driver is alleged to have planted his foot on the accelerator and completed a U-turn, before heading back towards Koroit”.
“He is alleged to have said to the woman, ‘I’m taking you’. She claims to be screaming at this time.” According to Constable Ryan the woman then decided to take matters into her own hands by jumping from the moving vehicle.
“She jumped out of the car while it’s travelling at an estimated 40km/h to 50 km/h. She tumbled out the right-hand side of the vehicle right onto the middle of the road on the bitumen,” he said.
“She suffered grazing and bruising and was picked up by her brother and they fled south into the paddocks.” The brother is said to have picked up a large stick from nearby in case the man who sped off came back to attack them again.
Russell Ian Payne, 41, who was arrested on Sunday and held in custody, appeared in a Magistrates Court today charged with kidnapping and has been remanded in custody until Thursday. He did not apply for bail.
The frightening story capped off what was otherwise reported as a great weekend that saw thousands of people descended upon Port Fairy over the long weekend for the 33rd annual folk festival.
