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News.com.au
10 minutes ago
- News.com.au
Port Lincoln locals react to shock discovery of human skull in Tamika Chesser case
Port Lincoln locals Katie and her friend were walking up Slipway Rd on Thursday afternoon. Just moments earlier, police had announced they had discovered a human skull in the walking trails and scrubland between Slipway Rd and Hindmarsh Rd on the eastern edge of the popular fishing town. The discovery marked another grisly twist in the Tamika Chesser case, which has sent shockwaves through the small and close-knit Eyre Peninsula community. 'I'm relieved for the family, it's a bit of closure for them,' Katie said. 'But I feel devastated for the person that found it.' Tyson McCallum was also walking in the area when his dog Benji the Beaglier found what police believe is a human head. 'I just went in a bit closer and kind of made the connection pretty quickly as to what I thought it was,' he told 9News. '(It was) pretty surreal to be honest,' he added. 'I was kind of like 'No way, it's not what I think it is, surely not'. But it was too coincidental.' Ms Chesser, a former Beauty and the Geek contestant, is accused of murdering her boyfriend Julian Story at the pair's Port Lincoln unit around midnight on June 17. Police allege she also dismembered Mr Story's body, removing his head. Ms Chesser was then allegedly captured on CCTV in the hours afterwards walking with a bag, dogs and dressed in heavy clothing. She was arrested on June 19 and charged with murder and destroy human remains. South Australian Police and SES volunteers fanned out across the town to search for Mr Story's missing remains in the days and weeks following the alleged murder, but the search was suspended last week. But in a shock development, police announced on Thursday afternoon they believed they had found Mr Story's head. A resident walking their dog found the skull and reported it to the authorities, police said. 'Preliminary investigations and phone calls to forensic science centre (indicate) the remains are most likely human, and I believe they are the remains of Julian Story,' Detective Superintendent Darren Fielke said. 'To confirm this, those remains will be subject to further testing over the coming days. Mr Story's family have been contacted and updated on next steps, the Superintendent said. Katie's friend, who did not wish to be named, said she was no longer worried she would 'stumble across it'. Katie said the discovery would likely reignite interest among locals in the case, which has gripped the town over the past few weeks. 'It's going to go mental,' Katie said. Ms Chesser's case has generated widespread interest because of her glamorous former life and the brutal nature of the alleged killing. Greg, who has lived in Port Lincoln since the 1970s, said locals discussed the case regularly. 'It was a gruesome bloody incident,' he said, speaking before Thursday's discovery. 'This town, we've never had anything like that before.' Harley Hozer, who lives across the road from the unit complex where Ms Chesser and Mr Story lived, said the allegations had 'shook the town'. 'It shook the town a little bit,' she told NewsWire. 'We've dealt with some crime before but nothing like this. 'It shocked me, that's for sure.' Police cars and cops patrolled the entry points to the scrubland across Thursday, with police line closing off the area. Detectives could be seen walking into the trails. That same day, Ms Chesser appeared at Port Lincoln Magistrates Court at 9.30am on three separate matters. Police allege she behaved in a disorderly manner at a tobacco store on Port Lincoln's Liverpool St and at the Port Lincoln Police station, both on February 14, 2025, It is further alleged she assaulted a woman on November 1 last year. It is listed as a summary offence, meaning it is considered a low level of offending. She is also alleged to have assaulted a police officer on June 20 this year, one day after she was arrested for the alleged killing of Mr Story. The 34-year-old woman appeared via AVL from James Nash House, a psychiatric facility, where she greeted the magistrate and answered questions for the first time in court. She sported a shaved head and wore a blue sweater and greeted Magistrate Patrick Hill with a 'hello'. Justin Slater, a solicitor with the Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement, represented her in court. He told Mr Hill he had ordered 'reports' into the charges. 'We are doing our own reports in relation to these matters,' he said. He asked Mr Hill to adjourn matters until a charge determination had been made for Ms Chesser's more serious allegations and Mr Hill agreed to the request, setting December 18 at Port Lincoln for the next hearing. When asked if she understood her hearing would be adjourned, Ms Chesser replied: 'Yep'. Mr Slater declined to comment on the charges or Ms Chesser's condition after the hearing. Thursday's hearing marked the second time Ms Chesser had fronted court following her first appearance at Adelaide Magistrates Court last month on the murder and destroy human remains charges. Those matters are listed to be heard in Adelaide on December 12. Mr Story was a Port Lincoln local, while Ms Chesser had only recently moved to the area from Queensland. She starred in the second series of the hit reality TV show Beauty and the Geek in 2010, finishing in second place. She has also worked as a model for a range of brands including Target and appeared in men's magazines including Ralph and FHM, a profile for her on Star Now states. Her Instagram and Facebook social media profiles are filled with racy and glamorous images. A funeral service for Mr Story is expected next week.
SBS Australia
27 minutes ago
- SBS Australia
Don't think you're the type to join a cult? Gloria didn't think she was either
Gloria had been shopping at Melbourne Central on an ordinary morning in 2019 when a man approached her, asking her to do a survey. It seemed like an innocent interaction, but one she would later learn was part of a wider plan that involved manipulative and controlling tactics. "This guy approaches me on the street and he said he was doing a survey for university. He said he was from RMIT and could I help him," the 25-year-old tells SBS News. The man showed Gloria images of three different emojis — a dancing woman, prayer hands and an aeroplane — and asked her to choose one. She chose the prayer hands. Gloria was presented with three emojis by a friendly person who said they were a university student carrying out a survey. Source: SBS News It opened a conversation about Gloria's faith and how she had been raised in a Christian family. When she told him she was not overly religious, he asked about her hobbies, and they started talking about her passion for photography. "He was like: 'Oh, I have a friend, she is a movie director, and she knows everything about photography and videography', and then she also happens to teach the Bible, so that's how he hooked me in," she says. Plans were made for Gloria to attend a Bible study where she could meet this friend. She says she was given a warm welcome and that the group's friendly approach made her more open to learning about its interpretation of the Bible, so she started attending regularly. It went from a two-times-a-week Bible study session, then it became three times a week. Before long, Gloria found herself enmeshed in Shincheonji Church of Jesus (SCJ), a South Korean religious group many consider to be a cult. The church was founded in 1984 by Lee Man-hee and is believed to have more than 200,000 members in South Korea, and more than 30,000 members overseas. Australian universities have issued warnings to their students about Shincheonji including Adelaide University and RMIT in Melbourne. RMIT posted on its website about the "Korean religious sect posing as Bible study", describing it as a scam and cautioning students about its recruitment tactics. "Over time there will be an increased amount of time expected for Church activities, including recruiting more people to the Church," the warning reads. "There will be pressure to not maintain contact with family and friends outside of the Church and keep Church membership a secret. There will be less and less time not scheduled with the Church to fit in study and see family and friends." Such methods are expected to be under the microscope as part of an upcoming inquiry into cults and organised fringe groups in Victoria. The inquiry has been accepting submissions since April, and SBS News understands a number of those are regarding Shincheonji. Four and a half years passed before Gloria started to question the group's tactics, which she now describes as controlling and manipulative. Secrecy and promises Gloria did not think she was the type of person who would join a cult. For the first nine months of her involvement with Shincheonji, she, like other new recruits, did not know the name of the group she was being groomed into. It was revealed to her at a ceremony held around the nine-month mark, in which she and other new members were encouraged to signify their commitment. On its Korean website, the organisation explains that Shincheonji means "new heaven and new Earth". Australian branches of the group connect back to South Korea's Shincheonji Church of Jesus (SCJ), and its Melbourne chapter has been registered as a charity since 2022. Lee is touted by his followers as the 'promised pastor' who will take 144,000 people with him to heaven on the 'day of judgement', which he professes will happen within his lifetime. Lee Man-hee is the chair of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, based in South Korea. Source: AAP Gloria says while the group's more dubious motives, including withholding its name, may seem obvious in hindsight, they were harder for her to spot at first. "They share a lot of Christian-related doctrines in the very beginning, but over time they change the teaching slowly, without people even realising," she says. "Once they start getting you on-side, they'll start teaching you a bit more of what they really want to teach you, they take your reaction and if you're strongly against it, they will bring in more traditional Christian topics to gain your trust again before bringing those topics in again." Exclusive to Shincheonji is the belief that Lee is a messenger sent by Jesus and that he has a unique ability to correctly interpret the Book of Revelation. "They are manipulating people, but they just say that is how to bring the person into God," she says. Gloria says when things didn't quite add up, further detail was always promised, but rarely delivered. "I did have a lot of questions, but the teacher would always say: 'Oh, we'll talk about that topic in the next topic', and obviously I'd forget about it by then," she says. Bearing 'fruit' Gloria did not realise at the time, but many of her interactions with people at her Bible study group were controlled and orchestrated in what she now believes was a form of psychological manipulation. More than half of those attending the classes were confirmed members of Shincheonji, but they did not disclose their affiliation at the time. Shincheonji members are referred to as 'leaves' and tasked with recruiting new members — or 'fruits'. The leaves are instructed to learn as much about their potential recruit as possible, including their strengths and weaknesses — information they then use to help bring them into the fold. In a video posted to YouTube in 2022 by the group, a presenter explains that "the leaf is an evangelist who spreads the word of life". Gloria may not have been familiar with the recruitment process when she was targeted as a 'fruit', but she soon learnt how existing members would minimise interactions between new recruits to control narratives. "Each fruit has one to two leaves, sometimes three, but it's pretty rare," she explains. "Imagine that there is a row of seeds, so the fruits will be sitting in the middle while the leaf will be sitting on their right and the left side of the fruit, so that the fruit that's in the middle won't be talking to another fruit on the other side of the seed. "The leaf will always follow the fruit wherever they go inside that classroom to make sure that the fruit doesn't talk to another fruit." Sometimes it could be even creepier, and they follow them to the toilet. The group uses Bible verses to back this figurative theory of growing trees when teaching their members. Within the group, members are referred to as "trees of life" who are meant to spread Shincheonji beliefs or knowledge referred to as the "word of life". Attaining this knowledge is framed as imperative for salvation and used by Shincheonji to separate its followers from the general population, who are believed to have a lack of knowledge. The group emphasises that only those who receive this 'revealed word' will be saved and attain heaven — one of the reasons it is sometimes referred to as a doomsday cult. So followers like Gloria initially feel they are sharing God's true teaching and doing good by bringing more people to the sect. From 'education' to 'indoctrination' Like other members of Shincheonji, Gloria was encouraged not to spend time with her friends outside of the group, as anyone with differing beliefs was framed as being "dead in spirit". "They would say they belong to the dead, you're not supposed to hang out with them so much, because they believe the dead people cannot be together with people who are alive," she says. Members are kept busy by the group, attending Bible study and evangelising others, which they are told will help them serve God and ultimately attain heaven. At the peak of her involvement, Gloria says she was committing 12 hours a day, almost every day, to the group. She would wake up at 5am or 6am each day to get to the first session. "You cannot be late to that 7am meeting. If you are late, you get scolded, you get public humiliation, you get shouted at in front of all the other members," she says. Gloria says members would tolerate this behaviour, believing the teachings that had been drilled into them. At the time, she felt she was showing her commitment to her faith, by taking part in what she calls "educations". Today, she calls it "indoctrination". Renee Spencer, a therapist who specialises in providing counselling to those who have experienced coercive control, describes this as "dictating daily tasks". "If you've got someone who is busy all day, then they don't have time to stop and question things, especially when you couple that with other behaviours such as controlling information," she says. Turning her back on the cult After two years, Gloria started to feel unhappy in the group. When she tried to express her feelings, she says she was encouraged to suppress them and continue on with the group. "I was feeling pressured, they encourage inside the group that you can't share any negative feelings, any negative comments or anything like that. They say that if you show it, then you're not overcoming yourself," she says. She started noticing things going on behind the scenes that made her uneasy, and started thinking more critically about how Shincheonji operates. "I noticed how members were not being treated well," Gloria says. "I started to see how, when members who had been there for three or four years, who started to get sick from working so much for SCJ, and then they had to take time off, they weren't cared for." Those people were made to feel like they were just thrown out like trash, like they no longer served a purpose. She says that's when her faith in the group's teachings began to falter. "[I] started to think that if it's the kingdom of God, if it was the place where God is, why are our people not being treated well?" How do you define a cult? Gloria finally left Shincheonji in 2024 after four and a half years. Looking back, she still finds it surprising that she got caught up with the group, but says the lack of knowledge about cults and how to identify them likely contributed to that. "In the world, we don't have that much of an education on [what] does a cult look like," she says. "Because people see being in cults based on what they see in the movies, like an upside-down cross ... but the real cult itself looks like a normal church." In Australia, there is no clear-cut legal definition that separates a cult from other similar religious entities, including 'sects' or 'new religious movements'. However, the Victorian inquiry has said it will focus on "groups that use manipulative or controlling tactics to dominate members". A public hearing last month heard from former members of the Geelong Revival Centre, a Pentecostal doomsday church. Spencer, whose drive to educate people about cults came after her daughter became involved in what is believed to be a cult, has created an evaluation tool to help people to identify cult-like characteristics within groups. Her system assesses groups based on 12 key criteria, from authoritative leadership to "us versus them" mentality, and provides a score to measure whether the group's influence is healthy or harmful and to what extent. The model draws on behaviours identified in the federal government's report on coercive control in domestic and family violence as a basis for the criteria. While Spencer's focus is on education and support, she says the tool could be used by authorities to identify groups using harmful and coercive practices, such as cults and religious sects. The Victorian inquiry will also consider whether the techniques used by these groups amount to criminal coercion. Ella George, the chair of the Victorian Legislative Assembly Legal and Social Issues Committee, which is overseeing the inquiry, says there is legitimate concern about whether the techniques groups such as Shincheonji are using would "amount to coercion that should be criminalised". NSW and Queensland have recently criminalised coercive control through specific legislation; however, this is limited to domestic relationships. Former federal attorney-general Mark Dreyfus, in his response to a petition mentioning Shincheonji and calling for the government to legislate against coercive control by any organisation, has said this is "a matter for individual state and territory governments". National principles on coercive control, which were created in collaboration with the federal government to establish "a shared national understanding of coercive control", are also specific to family and domestic violence contexts. Inquiry's public hearings to begin Gloria expects Shincheonji to come under the spotlight as part of the upcoming inquiry. She set up a support group for ex-members of Shincheonji in Australia last year, which has brought her in contact with about 70 former members in Melbourne and around a dozen each in Canberra, Sydney and Perth. Gloria says the group's influence extends far beyond Victoria. Gloria hopes the inquiry will force groups such as Shincheonji to be more transparent about their identity and motives from the outset. "That is coercive if you do not tell people what sort of organisation you are from in the beginning when recruiting someone," she says. Members surveying people on the street is just one of the methods Gloria says the group employs to recruit new members. She says the group has many "front groups", the most prominent being one that operates as a charity doing community service work, and that members of Shincheonji are constantly holding social events with different interest groups, using different aliases. SBS News is aware of singing groups, art exhibitions and K-pop-inspired events that have all been used as social gatherings to provide opportunities for group members to ingratiate themselves with new and potential recruits. Gloria says members may use such events to 'love-bomb' recruits — meaning to shower them with praise and form close connections with them. Love-bombing is one of the more commonly known tactics used by cults to recruit members, which the inquiry has suggested it will investigate via its submissions. Gloria says while she did not realise it at the time, the Shincheonji 'leaves' used this technique on her when she was introduced to the group by overwhelming her with affection, praise and attention to create emotional bonds. SBS News contacted Shincheonji's Melbourne chapter for comment but did not receive a response. Public hearings as part of the Victorian inquiry began last week, with a final report due no later than 30 September 2026.
SBS Australia
28 minutes ago
- SBS Australia
Albanese signals Indigenous truth-telling support after failure of Voice to Parliament
As the annual Garma Indigenous festival kicks off in north-east Arnhem land, the Northern Territory justice system is undergoing a seismic shift. The territory government, led by chief minister Lia Finnochiaro, of the Country Liberal Party, pushed through new laws affecting young offenders this week. "This government is delivering what Labor never would: real consequences for serious crimes, and a justice system that puts victims first," a statement from deputy chief minister and corrections minister Gerard Maley says. As many Indigenous Elders in Arnhem Land are quick to point out, these are not just statistics, these are young people who are being taken into the prison system when they are still in primary school. Members of the Gumatj clan of the Yolngu people from north-eastern Arnhem Land prepare for the Bunggul traditional dance at this year's Garma festival. Source: AAP / James Ross The NT government did not conduct specific consultations on the new laws but NT Aboriginal Affairs Minister Steve Edgington says these are conversations that have been going on for years, and he makes no apology for a tough-on-crime approach. It places Garma's annual political talks under a darkening cloud, with conflict brewing about how to deal with youth crime and incarceration. 'Where is the accountability?' On the eve of the talks, two architects of the original Uluru Statement from the Heart — Megan Davis and Pat Anderson — co-authored a statement in response to the traumatic realities of the failure of Closing the Gap efforts on many fronts. "Our children are being locked up, our elders are dying, and our people are continuing to live in a country where their rights are neglected. Their voices and calls for help falling on deaf ears," they wrote. "Where is the accountability? There is none. The agreement is not legal, and it is not binding." As Prime Minister Anthony Albanese walks the red dust path to the traditional Bunggul grounds on Saturday to sit with Gumatj Elders and appreciate the traditional dances of the world's oldest continuous culture unfold, he will be under pressure to do more. More at a federal level to ensure the gap is closing, and potentially more to address concerns about the NT government's decisions. Given the NT is not a state, the federal government holds the purse strings and immense power over its funding and whether to keep programs in place. While constitutional changes for an Indigenous voice to Parliament were not endorsed by the Australian people, there is still a movement among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to assemble a representative body, to take priority issues to the government for a solution. When he was elected as prime minister in 2022, Albanese committed to the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full. Kids play Australian rules football on the opening day of this year's Garma festival. Source: AAP / James Ross While the referendum for a Voice failed, the statement also included treaty and truth-telling. On Saturday, the prime minister is expected to endorse a truth-telling process in a broad sense, which will come as a relief to some advocates who have been pushing for reconciliation to include a reckoning over Australia's history and a process of confronting the injustices of the past. Responsibility to protect the next generation Last year, Albanese's message was about economic empowerment, and while north-east Arnhem Land is considered the gold standard of remote Indigenous employment, there are other areas that have steep long-term unemployment rates and little prospect of changing. The chairman of the Yothu Yindi Foundation, singer Djawa Yunupingu, is the senior leader who will welcome people to the Gumatj lands this weekend. Yunupingu thinks there needs to be more accountability around the Closing the Gap measures too. "It's something that we need to really do for the future of our people," he told NITV's Emma Kellaway. As toddlers play in the ancestral sands of the Bunggul grounds, and school kids toss around a footy on the Garma oval, Yunupingu knows the responsibility the community has to protect the next generation. In the view of so many community leaders, they see the federal government as having a shared responsibility as to what happens next.
