Adelaide Hills man accused of keeping sex slave says charging him with 427 firearms counts is unfair and too expensive

An alleged gun hoarder and sex slaver has complained it’s unfair to prosecute him for 427 crimes – because it will force him to pay $100,000 in court levies.

A man accused of hoarding guns and keeping a woman as a sex slave says charging him with more than 400 crimes is unfair – because it means he will pay $100,000 in court levies.

On Thursday, counsel for a man, 53, told the Adelaide Magistrates Court that, despite two years of investigations and hearings, they would not concede their client had a case to answer.

Andrew Ey, for the man, said prosecutors insisted on pursuing 427 individual charges against his client, even after extensive out-of-court negotiations.

“That would equal more than $100,000 in victims of crime levies alone,” he said.

“We’ve attempted to make sensible representations, to the prosecution, about representative counts … that’s gone nowhere, quite frankly.

“They offered to make it 161 counts, but even that is $30,000 in levies.”

Some of the guns allegedly seized from the man’s property.

The man was initially charged with more than 130 offences, including multiple counts of possessing a firearm without a licence.

His identity cannot be published in order to protect the privacy of the woman who brought the alleged offending to the attention of SA Police.

Previously, the court heard she had allegedly been subjected, by the man, to sexual and emotional violence.

She alleged the man had forced her to engage in sexual activity with other men.

The woman alleged that, after she refused to participate any further, she subsequently learned he had filmed the acts without her consent.

She further alleged he threatened to release the videos online, and send images to her friends and family, if she did not continue to obey him – prompting her to go to police.

The discovery of the firearms cache led to the filing of 427 charges against the man.

Her allegations sparked a three-day raid of the man’s property, north of Mount Barker.

Police allegedly found 264 firearms, thousands of rounds of ammunition, gunpowder and silencers, throwing knives, daggers, bayonets and a crossbow.

They also allegedly found an assault rifle similar to one used in a mass shooting in El Paso, Texas that killed 20 people.

Arresting officers said that weapon was “made for war” and “purely designed for killing people”.

On Thursday, prosecutors told the court they had no sympathy for the man’s concern about the levies, saying “that’s not really our problem”.

Mr Ey replied “then I suggest you prosecute it”, prompting Magistrate John Wells to intervene.

“You can continue your negotiations – or your bickering, really – outside of court,” he said.

He remanded the man on continuing bail to a case management conference next month.