Stars of major Channel 7 television show return to court in Brisbane

The stars of a major Channel 7 television show, charged with serious sexual assault and torture offences against children, have returned to court, with two charges against the male defendant dropped.

The stars of a major Channel 7 television show, charged with serious sexual assault and torture offences against children, have returned to court, with two torture charges against the male defendant dropped.

The man and woman, who cannot be named, appeared at Richlands Magistrate Court on Monday for a committal hearing.

The co-accused faced more than 30 counts of serious charges including torture, rape, sexual assault, assault occasioning bodily harm, some armed or in company, indecent treatment of a child and common assault, allegedly spanning over a number of years.

They were accompanied by a large group of supporters.

Police prosecutor Tom Wirawan submitted evidence to Magistrate Stuart Shearer in a text message format, without a statement from the witness.

The defendants appeared at Richlands Magistrate Court on Monday. Picture: NewsWire / Glenn Campbell

Magistrate Stuart Shearer declared the evidence as “hearsay”. “You can’t just hand up some text message, it’s inadmissable,” Mr Shearer said.

“There’s a lot of material that is inadmissable and irrelevant,” he said.

Sgt Wirawan submitted counselling records as evidence to the court and confirmed these too were unaccompanied by a statement from the witness.

Mr Shearer said he was perplexed by the prosecution.

“I’m perplexed, there’s a whole lot of counselling records. In order to have preliminary complaint records they need to have a statement from the witness,” Mr Shearer said.

“The notes are reported to be produced from the complainant. She’s seeking to bootstrap herself, you can’t accept what’s in there without a statement from the witness,” he said.

Mr Shearer asked why there was a “scramble” with the prosecution’s case.

The first “special witness”, a relation to the female defendant, was called.

Defence barrister Simon Lewis, for the female defendant, said despite the prosecution not applying for an order for the court to be closed, it “needed to be closed”.

Following the cross examination of three witnesses, in a closed court, it was reopened.

The male defendant’s two counts of torture that allegedly happened during a 15- and 18-year period were dropped by the prosecution.

Sergeant Wirawan said he could not provide a prima facie case for the two torture charges against the man.

The matter was adjourned until January 15.