Family Of Circus Performers Falsely Accused Of Sex Crimes

 A family of circus performers who were falsely accused of a  sex crimes against children have opened up about their 206-day ordeal - and hit out at the police tactics used to incriminate them.


Seven members of the Cook family - who ran a Blue Mountains-based troupe in Katoomba west of Sydney were in 2018 arrested and charged with 127 offences related to an alleged child sex ring at their circus school. 


Therese Cook-Williams, 60, her 54-year-old brother Paul Cook, her daughters Yyani, 35, and Clarissa, 25, their relatives Lachie and Lucy and one other woman were all cleared of any wrongdoing in Penrith Local Court two years later in February 2020. 


The completely baseless allegations included rape, assault, kidnapping, participation in bizarre blood rituals as well as false claims Therese bit down into the penis of one of the boys before using her teeth to pick him off the ground. 


Members of the family were kept in custody for as long as 206 days before being granted bail.  


Clarissa Meredith on Sunday night revealed New South Wales Police went to such lengths to find evidence against her they even enlisted a detective who she had dated to try and get a confession.


One short and seemingly innocent handheld video showed two young children enjoying themselves with Yyani and Therese on a set of playground equipment.


Even though the clip showed nothing untoward, police wrongly alleged that on the same day the footage was filmed Yyani forced the children to perform sexual acts on each other.


In March 2019, one of the boys who claimed he was a victim of the family wrote a letter to his mother admitting he had lied about being sexually assaulted.


But by that point the three women had spent seven months in prison - with Therese told she could be facing 25 years to life behind bars.


For Clarissa, three weeks of her incarceration were in a cold solitary confinement cell where the lights always stayed on.  


She was charged with 43 offences, including aggravated assault of a child, sexual intercourse with a child under 10 and holding children against their will. All charges were dropped. 

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