Child sex abuse charges against operators of Katoomba circus school dropped
All charges against Therese Ann Cook have been dropped.
NSW Police say they still believe charges against seven people linked to a Blue Mountains circus should proceed after all 126 child sex offences against the accused were dropped in a Sydney court.
Four adults and three young people were arrested in 2018, charged with 126 offences linked to the alleged sexual abuse of three young boys at The Arcade Circus at Katoomba over two years.
Police had alleged the boys were subjected to sexual abuse, kidnapping, intimidation, assault, made to abuse each other and forced to appear in child abuse material filmed by adults on their mobile phones.
On Friday all charges against the seven co-accused were dropped at Penrith Local Court, in a move their lawyer described as "total vindication".
"It was a total concoction. They were totally innocent and this is total vindication," defence lawyer Bryan Wrench told the Herald.
Shortly after the charges were withdrawn a NSW Police spokeswoman said it was "the strong recommendation of the Child Abuse and Sex Crimes Squad that the matters proceed before the court and a review has been requested."
Therese Ann Cook, 58, her brother Paul Christopher Cook, 52, and 23-year-old Clarissa Meredith were arrested at a home in Katoomba in February 2018. Another woman, 29-year-old Yyani Cook-Williams, was arrested at Canterbury in Sydney's south-west on the same day.
Yyani Cook-Williams, also known as Yyani Rose, had the charges against her dropped in Penrith on Friday.Credit:Facebook
A 17-year-old girl, an 18-year-old man and a 20-year-old woman were also taken into custody over the alleged child sex offences.
Mr Wrench said he and his legal team found out the charges would be dropped late on Thursday afternoon, when investigating police officers were also informed, describing it as overwhelming for his clients.
"There are very big questions to be answered by further proceedings in other applications down the track," he said.
"We put in a no-bill application eight months ago and we've been waiting and waiting."
A no-bill application is a representation for a case to be dropped, arguing the prosecution is unable to prove one or more of the essential elements of a criminal offence.
"We argued implausibility, inconsistency. And we had independent video footage that supported our version of events," Mr Wrench said.
He pointed to a "deleted record," in the form of a handwritten letter by one of the alleged child victims stating that he had been "lying about the whole thing”.
"The adults in this case spent 206 days in custody. And then their restrictions on bail meant they couldn't talk to each other for almost two years," Mr Wrench said.
Inside the Katoomba based circus school. Credit:Facebook
On an online profile, Ms Cook said she started The Arcade Circus in 2009 and believed she was "tragically lost from the back of a travelling circus truck shortly after birth".
"After working in health and education Therese followed the striped and feathered path and discovered her circus community in 2005," the profile said.
The profile said she is a carer and teacher who works for the Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre and was given a scholarship to train and attend the first National Indigenous and Social Circus Training and Conference.