Man accused of keeping a sex slave and amassing 264 firearms allowed to return to his remote property on home detention bail
A man who allegedly kept a woman as a sex slave on a remote property where he amassed more than 260 guns will be allowed to live there again on home detention bail.
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A man has been released on bail and permitted to move back to the remote property where he allegedly amassed a huge arsenal of firearms and kept a woman against her will as a sex slave.
On Tuesday, the Adelaide Magistrates Court granted the man home detention bail, ordering he be subject to around-the-clock electronic monitoring.
The man, 53, has yet to plead to more than 130 offences, including multiple counts of possessing a firearm without a licence.
The charges relate to a three-day raid of his property, north of Mt Barker, that saw police recover 264 firearms, thousands of rounds of ammunition, gunpowder and silencers.
Police also seized throwing knives, daggers, bayonets, a crossbow and an assault rifle similar to one used in a mass shooting in El Paso, Texas that killed 20 people.
Arresting offices said that weapon was “made for war” and “purely designed for killing people”.
Previously, the court has heard the cache came to light thanks to a woman who had allegedly been subjected, by the man, to sexual and emotional violence.
She alleged the man forced her to engage in sexual activity with other men and, when she refused to participate any further, 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 – and so she went to police.
The man’s identity cannot be published because it may tend to identify the woman, whose privacy and anonymity is guaranteed by SA law.
On Tuesday, Andrew Ey, for the man, said authorities had determined his client’s property was suitable for electronic monitoring.
SA Police said they did not oppose the man’s release so long as he was banned from being in possession or ammunition and any part of a firearm.
The state’s chief magistrate, Judge Mary-Louise Hribal, released the man on $1000 bail and ordered he face court again in October.