Elisha set off on a road trip of a lifetime. Two months later, she'd escape a living hell.

Content warning: This post details sexual assault/rape and will be will triggering for some readers.

Elisha Greer was like any 21-year-old traveller when she met Marcus Martin at an Australia Day party in Cairns in 2017.

Having come to Australia from the UK seeking adventure, Marcus’ suggestion to take a road trip through the outback sounded like just the experience the Liverpudlian was looking for.

Little did she know it would be the start of the most terrifying two months of her life. Two months of being held hostage by a crazed maniac with a gun.

Watch the trailer for Channel 7’s Sunday Night investigation into Elisha Greer’s horrific ordeal. Post continues after. 

Marcus was far from the fun guy at a party Elisha had initially fallen for.

He was a dangerous criminal she was lucky to escape.

“He was crazy,” Elisha said in a preview of her interview with Melissa Doyle on Channel 7’s Sunday Night. 

“Completely and utterly crazy.”

Marcus, the heavily tattooed 23-year-old whose spell Elisha had fallen under, raped her in a Cairns hotel room before forcing her at gun point to drive 1,500km through the Australian outback for two months.

He beat and raped her repeatedly while high on drugs, until one day, a stranger intervened and set her free.

As Elisha pulled in to fill Marcus' white Pajero with petrol in Mitchell, south central Queensland, the station attendant noticed straight away that she was in danger.

Elisha's appearance - teary-eyed and shaky - prompted the woman to call the police.

Beverly Page said Elisha looked "in a state of shock" and "zombie-like" when she came in to the petrol station, and eventually drove off without paying for the tank of fuel.

In an interview with the ABC, Beverly recalled Elisha had been crying and was distressed when she approached the counter.

“To see a young girl that upset, and with black eyes. She had said she had come from England. To know that she was over here and she didn’t have anyone to contact,” Beverly said.

She immediately called the police, who pulled Elisha over and found her captor hiding in the boot of the car.

Elisha, as police reported, looked "terrified" behind the wheel.

Now, two years later, the 23-year-old is sharing her story of survival.

“I was forced to drive the car with a gun to my head,” she explained of the hellish two month road trip, telling Channel 7's Melissa Doyle she feared she would be murdered if she tried to escape.

But Elisha doesn't want to be remembered as a victim, rather a survivor and inspiration to other women who have endured abuse.

“I don’t won’t people thinking I am a victim when I’m not,” she told news.com.au.

“I just want people to know it’s okay... that being a victim isn’t the end of everything and that everyone can get through something."

“I want people to know that it’s not the end for them," she added.

Her attacker Marcus Martin eventually pleaded guilty to three counts of rape and one count of deprivation of liberty at the Cairns District Court in north Queensland in October 2018.

He had previously pleaded guilty to charges including assault occasioning bodily harm, supplying dangerous drugs, wilful damage, and strangulation or choking.

Prosecutors dropped 10 other charges – eight of rape, one of serious cruelty to animals, and one of torture.

He will be sentenced on May 28 this year.

Elisha Greer’s full story will appear on Channel 7’s Sunday Night at 8.30pm AEST.

If this post brings up any issues for you, or if you just feel like you need to speak to someone, please call 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) – the national sexual assault, domestic and family violence counselling service. It doesn’t matter where you live, they will take your call and, if need be, refer you to a service closer to home.