The lawyer representing a Paradise Beach father who faces a multitude of sex offence-related charges, has withdrawn as his attorney.
On Friday Alwyn Griebenow officially withdrew from the matter after discussion in the judge’s chambers.
The reasons for his withdrawal are not clear.
The 55-year-old father and his 20-year-old stepson face 744 charges including rape, sexual assault, the creation, possession and distribution of child pornography, grooming, human trafficking, earning a living from sexual exploitation of minors, exposing children and persons with mental disabilities to pornography, failing to report the sexual assault of a minor and bestiality.
It is alleged the pair committed the offences over a period of at least seven years.
In June the 40-year-old mother of the 20-year-old, his teenage half-sister and her two minor siblings pleaded guilty to charges of failure to report the sexual assault of a minor and defeating the ends of justice.
The mother was given a three-year suspended sentence.
The mother admitted that she knew her son, from a previous relationship, had raped his half-sister and molested her two younger children.
She further admitted to helping her long-term partner by alerting him that he was being investigated by the police before his September 2022 arrest.
Both men were denied bail and have been in custody since.
Various electronic devices were seized during police investigations which allegedly contain thousands of images and recordings of child pornography and other related materials.
It is alleged the man first began exposing his eldest daughter, now 18, to pornography from the age of 10.
At the age of 11 the girl was allegedly first forced by her half-brother and father to perform sexual acts on her father while the stepbrother first began sexually assaulting her when she was 12.
At times the sexual assaults and rapes were allegedly recorded by the father on his cellphone and later uploaded to his computer. He would then allegedly peddle the graphic images and videos.
In January 2021 the girl told her aunt what had happened the aunt reported the matter to the girl’s parents.
At the time the younger children were questioned to determine whether they were also victims of their older half-brother.
It then allegedly emerged that the elder sibling had sexually assaulted his younger half-brother at the age of five and the younger sister had been assaulted from when she was in grade R until she was nine.
Both men have applied for Legal Aid SA assistance and are expected back in court on January 26.
HeraldLIVE
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