A self-styled "shaman" accused of drugging and raping women on the Gold Coast in bizarre exorcism-style ceremonies allegedly "recruited" another person to silence alleged victims, according to police.
Court documents tendered as part of a bail application in the Supreme Court, show detectives allege a second man phoned one of the women to "threaten her into retracting comments".
That second man, who has not been charged, allegedly told her to stop talking "before anything bad happens to anybody".
The new details come from documents filed by police in a Queensland Supreme Court bail application for the 50-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons.
The man has been charged with two counts of rape, two counts of supplying dangerous drugs to a person without their knowledge, three counts of stupefying to commit an indictable offence, sexual assault and assault occasioning bodily harm.
He was granted bail in February.
Ritual to 'rid women of bad energies'
In the submissions tendered in court objecting to bail, police allege the man assaulted the women during a "ritual similar to an exorcism to rid [the women] of bad energies".
Police allege he told them he was a shaman who conducts ceremonies.
The man was charged in January over the alleged incidents which involved female students and tourists, one of whom claimed she fled a "ceremony" and alerted authorities, alleging she witnessed the rape of her friend.
Police allege in the court documents that the man held several "ceremonies" in 2022 and 2023 where he made the women wear white.
"[He] was moving his arms around saying he had superpowers," one of the alleged victims said in a statement to police that was filed in court.
"I remember that he told me on the day of the ceremony that he was going to take the ceremony to famous people. He was saying he had connections with famous people," another woman said.
The documents allege the man told the women he usually charged between $500 and $1,000 for the "ceremonies" but offered to do them for free.
Police allege the incidents happened in a luxury apartment complex in Broadbeach, involving the alleged sexual assault of a 22-year-old woman who had been cleaning for the man.
A separate incident involved a 21-year-old student he met in the lift of the apartments and allegedly later raped.
The second alleged rape is alleged to have occurred at another apartment the man was living in several suburbs away.
The alleged incident happened on the day two tourists – aged 21 and 23 -- moved into the property, after responding to an advertisement for accommodation online.
The 23-year-old was allegedly raped and hit in the face in one of the "ceremonies".
Accused took advantage of Gold Coast rental crisis, police say
Police claim in the court documents the man used social media to "identify and target" victims during a "rental crisis on the Gold Coast".
They said the women agreed to take what they believed were magic mushrooms or the plant-based psychedelic Ayahuasca but were also given a coloured substance.
Two of the women said he put his hands in their mouths telling them to "stay strong" during the "ceremony".
"I could feel some pills being out down my throat … but I'm not sure how many," one said in her police statement tendered in court.
One of the women told police the man engaged her to clean before and after "Ayahuasca ceremonies".
"I knew it was an illegal drug and [he] told me it was illegal too and that he shipped it in from Peru," the woman said in her police statement.
Several of the women claimed they began "freaking out" after being provided the drugs and liquid.
Alleged victim 'attempted to jump out of window twice', police told
Court documents show that one of the women, who had moved into the flat with the man, told police her 23-year-old friend, who she allegedly later witnessed being raped, "wasn't herself" after being provided with a drink of "crushed plants and water" and had tried to "jump out of the window twice".
The women told the police she witnessed the man raping her friend while unconscious and "slapping" her in the face.
"I saw that [the] right side of her face was swollen and bloody. She was staring at me not blinking and it was so weird," the woman told police.
In her statement, the 21-year-old claimed while she was intoxicated at the Broadbeach apartment the man began having sex with her, and afterwards took her to a Chinese restaurant.
"I felt like I was trapped, like he was making me be his girlfriend," she told police.
Police object to bail alleging criminal connections
Police told the court in their objection to bail: "The defendant holds power both through his connections with criminal networks and has previously utilised this power to contact and intimidate two of the voices to which this objection seeks to protect".
Detectives also said he was once was a member of the Bandidos bikie gang.
"The defendant appears to live a luxurious lifestyle investigators believe to inconsistent with his described method of income," the objection to bail said.
The man's former defence solicitor Danielle Heable told the court, in her affidavit filed in February, that her client was previously medicated for schizophrenia.
"The victim's versions of events outline that they were all under the influence of a hallucinogen at the time of the offending … there is nothing in the material provided to defence that supports the allegation [one of the victims] was unaware she had been given a dangerous drug," she said.
The man's wife claimed in court documents that the 50-year-old used to exercise up to seven hours a day in an attempt to keep his mental health under control, but the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to a decline in his condition.
"He told me that he believed he had a gift," she said in her affidavit to the Supreme Court.
"He told me that he had been visiting a lot of clairvoyant websites trying to find his purpose. This is when he was introduced to Ayahuasca."
The man was granted bail on the basis he engages with a mental health plan, have no alcohol or drugs, surrender his passport and not leave the state or travel overseas.
He also cannot use encrypted applications, must report to police and can only have approved visitors at his home.
He will face the Southport Magistrates Court again later this year.
