IDENTICAL twin brothers Richard and Stephen Mateer have pleaded not guilty to a string of historical child sexual assaults that were allegedly uncovered as part of an investigation into the disapperance of young women in Lake Macquarie in the late 1970s.
The Mateer brothers, 70, were represented by solicitor Mark Ramsland when they appeared in Newcastle Local Court via audio visual link from jail on Wednesday.
Stephen Mateer pleaded not guilty to 45 counts, including multiple charges of sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault and indecent assault against two boys.
While Richard Mateer pleaded not guilty to eight counts, including sexual assault and indecent assault in company in relation to one of the boys.
The assaults are alleged to have occurred in Belmont between 1989 and 1993.
The pair will next appear in Newcastle District Court in July to get a trial date.
Detectives from Strike Force Arapaima, formed in 2019 to re-examine the investigations into the 1979 suspected murders of Robyn Hickie and Amanda Robinson and the 1994 suspected murder of Gordana Kotevski, say they began focusing on a Scouts fundraiser at the former Swansea Bowling Club on the night Amanda went missing in April 1979.
As part of that investigation, detectives say they uncovered information relating to the alleged sexual abuse of two boys - then aged between 12 and 14 - in the late 1980s and early 1990s by two men known to them.
