Kilburn alleged slaver Cristhian David Diaz Suarez sexually assaulted youth group, threatened to kill their parents, court told
An Adelaide man dominated the lives of a youth group for eight years, with horrendous punishments – including the death of parents – for disobedience, a court has heard.
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A Colombian man enslaved, then physically and sexually assaulted, members of a youth group and threatened to have their parents killed if they left his Kilburn home, a court has heard.
The Adelaide Magistrates Court has been told Cristhian David Diaz Suarez maintained “absolute authority” over the group for eight years through “cruel, inhuman and degrading” treatment.
On Thursday, a federal prosecutor urged the court to reject Mr Diaz Suarez’s home detention bail bid, warning he would intimidate his alleged victims and then flee overseas.
“The defendant used coercion or threats to cause the victims to provide labour and services to him … they were expected to keep him informed of their every movement,” he said.
“He deprived them of their personal freedom by controlling their living arrangements, finances and movements.
“Phone records show one victim sent 335 messages to him in a two-month period, even seeking his permission to take a Panadol.
“Punishments included ‘doing calligraphy’ – pages and pages of handwritten notes reading ‘I need to follow instructions properly and without excuses’.
“Other punishments were excessive exercise and sleeping outside … in one message, he instructed ‘no tent, no nothing’.
“He told one victim he would pay $100 to have her family killed in Venezuela, and she believed he would kill her if she left the group.”
Mr Diaz Suarez, 38, and his co-accused, Beatriz Odalis Brancho Gonzalez, 35, have yet to plead to debt bondage and servitude offences.
Prosecutors allege they took control of the passports and lives of a Venezuelan youth group, which Mr Diaz Suarez helped found, upon its arrival in Australia.
The youths were allegedly subjected to cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment, including abuse and servitude, between February 2016 and May 2024.
On Thursday, the prosecutor said Mr Diaz Suarez and Ms Brancho Gonzalez financially benefited from those who were enslaved.
They did so, he alleged, by forcing them to hand over all money earned from their jobs, as well as demanding they take care of all chores in the house.
“Ms Brancho Gonzalez would message (one victim) saying ‘Cris needs all your savings transferred to his account as soon as possible’,” he said.
He said Mr Diaz Suarez could return to Colombia if released on bail – a suggestion defence counsel Hugh Woods rejected.
Mr Woods said his client’s visa did not expire until 2027, that he had been educated in an Australian university, had ties to the country and could surrender his passport.
Bail was refused by the state’s chief magistrate, Judge Mary Louise Hribal, who said the charges were too serious and the need to protect the alleged victims too great.
She remanded Mr Diaz Suarez in custody to face court, alongside Ms Brancho Gonzalez, in June.
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