Vic rape victim held in 'cubby house'

A man has pleaded guilty to stalking, abducting and raping a woman he kept imprisoned in a rural Victorian property for five days.

A man allegedly used a disguise, a fake driver's licence and chloroform, to track and abduct a woman he kept in a soundproofed room on a rural Victorian property.

Michael Allen Pilgrim, aka Mark Darcy, kept the woman chained up for five days in a soundproof "cubby house" he purpose-built on a Drouin property where he repeatedly raped her, the Victorian County Court heard.

Prosecutor Brett Sonnet told the court Pilgrim, a former aeronautical engineer, was highly educated and was meticulous in planning the July 2012 abduction.

Pilgrim created a range of false identities, ordered chloroform and nitric acid online and researched torture techniques, uses for prescription drugs and how to construct and use a propane crematorium, he said.

Mr Sonnet said Pilgrim, who came to know the woman when she was a sex worker, placed GPS-tracking devices on the victim's car and her sister's car, later telling her that if she tried to harm herself he would go after her sister.

Wearing a fake beard and hi-visibility vest he tracked her to a friend's house, tasered the man who answered the door when he knocked, then struck him on the head with a pistol.

The prosecution alleges he then made the victim get into a car, threw her phone out the window and stabbed the electronic chips in her bank cards.

The court heard Pilgrim told her: "You better not play up because I really feel like carving someone up today."

He took her to the rural property, padlocked her to the floor and told her he planned to keep her there to use her.

Pilgrim, 34, of no fixed address, has pleaded guilty to a string of charges, including four counts of rape, one count of false imprisonment, abduction and stalking.

Pilgrim also pleaded guilty to possessing explosive devices and child pornography material.

The 25-year-old victim escaped after she complained of severe stomach pains and told Pilgrim she had had a termination.

He allowed her to go to Warragul hospital, where she was diagnosed as having suffered an ectopic pregnancy.

Pilgrim attempted to contact her via a Facebook alias while she was in hospital.

He was apprehended in Sydney before being extradited to Victoria.

The plea hearing continues.


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Source: AAP


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