Two brothers accused of kidnapping former Australian Take a look at cricketer Stuart MacGill have been granted strict conditional bail by the NSW Supreme Court docket.
Brothers Frederick Schaaf, 28, and Richard Schaaf, 30, are accused of kidnapping the previous spin bowler on April 14, 2021.
The pair who face one cost of taking or detaining an individual in firm to get benefit and occasioning precise bodily hurt have been granted bail by Justice Richard Button on Thursday.
Based on MacGill’s police assertion following the incident, he was punched repeatedly to the back and front of his face and into his chin, inflicting him to change into concussed.
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The Crown conceded that no medical studies or witness statements substantiated the severity of the alleged beating he suffered.
The Schaaf brother’s barrister Avni Djemal submitted there was “a excessive degree” of proof that implicated MacGill within the drug transaction and was stunned he had not been charged over the incident.
“There could also be some query as as to whether the complainant acquired within the automotive willingly,” Justice Button mentioned.
MacGill informed police he was pressured right into a automotive at Cremorne on Sydney’s north shore and brought to Bringelly, south of Sydney.
Three assailants then allegedly tried to extort cash from the 51-year-old earlier than dropping him about 45 minutes away in Belmore about an hour later.
He couldn’t determine the boys who kidnapped him however mentioned they spoke Tongan.
He waited every week to report the incident to police saying he was so frightened by the expertise and had been threatened with a gun.
The Crown alleges the boys kidnapped and brutalised MacGill who was working a restaurant on the time to acquire cash for a drug “rip-off,” purportedly dedicated by a person launched to them by the cricketer, in line with the judgment.
The courtroom was informed that Frederick Schaaf had two telephones, one positioned contained in the automotive allegedly used within the kidnapping.
However Mr Djemal mentioned his different covert Cipher telephone was nowhere close to the automotive, and argued his different overt telephone was left contained in the automotive whereas it was borrowed.
The Schaaf brothers have been held in custody since their arrest in Might 2021.
The Crown submitted the case in opposition to Richard Schaaf was “affordable,” whereas his brother’s was “not sturdy, however it’s however an affordable” case.
Frederick Schaaf’s “lamentable” dental well being made up a part of his software after the courtroom was informed he couldn’t safe satisfactory medical consideration whereas in custody.
He was bailed to reside “beneath digital home arrest” and to take care of his sick mom, Justice Button mentioned.
The boys should report back to Marrickville Police Station each day, abide by a curfew, not talk with any of the co-accused and never go inside three kilometres of Cremorne Junction LPO, amongst different circumstances.
A District Court docket trial in Sydney has been set down for October 23, 2023.
