A man has been accused of persuading a 13-year-old child to have sex with him, just months after all charges in an alleged BDSM sex cult case were dropped.
James-Robert Davis, 43, appeared via audiovisual link at Waverley Court on Tuesday to apply for bail after being remanded in custody on the new charges.
Police allege in court documents he procured a 13-year-old child to have illicit sex with him at a location in Sydney’s south-west during the 15 months leading up to April 1.
After gaining access to the child, he is further accused of sexually touching the child once in March and twice on the afternoon of April 1.
Mr. Davis was arrested two weeks later and charged with procuring a child under 14 years old for unlawful sexual activity and three counts of intentionally sexually touching a child under 16 years old.
He was taken to the police station, where he has been since.
James-Robert Davis, 43, has appeared in court accused of recruiting a 13-year-old girl for sex, just months after sex cult charges against him were dropped
The court was closed to the public and media during his bail application, which was rejected by Magistrate George Zdenkowski.
The magistrate ruled that the former prison guard would pose an unacceptable risk to the public if released on bail.
The setback comes after the 43-year-old scored a major victory in the NSW District Court earlier this year.
He faced 20 charges relating to an alleged sex cult, but the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions confirmed all charges were dropped in January.
Mr Davis was due to appear in court this year after pleading not guilty to the charges, which include multiple counts of inciting a person over 16 to commit an act of indecency, distributing child abuse material and torturing animals. All charges have now been dropped.
He was arrested in March 2021 over allegations he held a woman as a slave in Sydney’s eastern suburbs between 2013 and 2015.
He calls himself the master of the ‘House of Cadifor’, an alleged BDSM cult in NSW
The charges of slavery and sexual servitude of women were dropped six months later.
The allegations related to the ‘House of Cadifor’, an alleged BDSM sex cult near Armidale in northern NSW.
The DPP dismissed the remaining charges in January and all charges in the case were withdrawn.
The office confirmed on Tuesday that there would be no further proceedings against Mr Davis over these allegations.
The former soldier will appear in court again next month when he asks the state to pay his legal fees for the lengthy court case.