Scot stabbed to death during row at Australian holiday park

Published on Tuesday 31 January 2006 01:32

A SCOTTISH backpacker has been stabbed to death while trying to protect his girlfriend during an argument at a holiday park in Australia.

Rudi Boa, 27, from Inverness, died from a single stab wound to his chest on Friday, while he and his girlfriend, Gillian Brown, 28, who is from Nairn, were staying at a holiday complex near the Snowy Mountains in New South Wales.

Yesterday an English backpacker, Alexander York, appeared in court, charged with his murder.

Mr Boa and his girlfriend had met while studying to be medical research officers at Edinburgh's Napier University and had taken a year off from their respective jobs to travel to Asia and Australia.

Mr Boa, who had been working with NHS Highland in Inverness at the city's Raigmore Hospital, and Miss Brown, who had been working with Greater Glasgow NHS, had been staying at the Blowering Holiday Park, near the remote town of Tumut, when their trip turned to tragedy.

They arrived in Tumut a week ago, after holidaying in south-east Asia and had been planning to travel on to New Zealand.

A family friend said that Mr Boa, who celebrated his 27th birthday on 20 January, had been killed after he had been drinking with York, a backpacker from Essex who had been making a living by picking fruit in the area.

The friend said: "There was a row and apparently this guy followed Rudi's girlfriend back to her tent and attacked her. She slapped him and Rudi went to her rescue."

Jan Biddle, the owner of the holiday park, 250 miles south-west of Sydney, said: "It was a shocking thing to happen and nobody can understand why. The only thing we can put it down to is that there was too much alcohol involved and it just escalated from some silly argument."

She added: "I am so terribly sorry for the three families that are involved. It must be terrible, especially for Gill's family as she is so far from home. Alex did not cause any trouble at the park before. He had been drinking from early in the morning."

William Chisholm, the uncle of Mr Boa, said that his parents, Richard and Elizabeth, were told of his murder just hours after the family had met for a Burns Supper on Friday night. Mr Boa, a joiner, has flown out to Australia to comfort Miss Brown and to make arrangements for his son's body to be flown home.

Mr Chisholm said: "It's so sad. We thought it would be more dangerous for them when they were in Asia and they would be safe once they reached Australia."

York, 31, who had been staying at the holiday camp since late December, was remanded in custody until March, when he appeared at the court in Tumut yesterday, accused of stabbing Mr Boa to death.

A spokesman for the British High Commission in Sydney said it would offer consular assistance to the deceased's family and the accused.