It's About Crime

Category: True Crime

  • Former My Kitchen Rules Contestants Named After Guilty Plea to Assault Charges

    Former My Kitchen Rules Contestants Named After Guilty Plea to Assault Charges

    Two former contestants from My Kitchen Rules can now be publicly identified after one of them pleaded guilty to multiple assaults involving children.

    Claudean Bernadette Uamaki-Mu, 54, and Anthony Michael Mu, who both appeared on the Channel 7 reality cooking show in 2023, were previously shielded by a non-publication order issued by Richlands Magistrates Court. That order has now been lifted following Uamaki-Mu’s guilty plea on Wednesday.

    Uamaki-Mu admitted to six counts of common assault and received a 12-month good behaviour bond with a $1,000 recognisance. No conviction was recorded.

    Court proceedings began at 9 a.m., though a delay followed while police attempted to amend the charges. After a prolonged case conference that continued through the lunch break, prosecutors chose to proceed with six charges and withdrew the rest.

    Acting Magistrate Michael Quinn described the assaults as “extremely serious,” detailing several disturbing incidents. These included pulling a child’s hair, striking a child with a hairbrush, spitting, and hitting a child with a plastic container. One child was reportedly kicked in the stomach and dragged by the hair; in another incident, a child was thrown into a wall, and in yet another, a child was poked in the face after being pulled to the ground.

    “The protection of children is paramount,” Mr Quinn said during sentencing.

    The court heard that Uamaki-Mu had no prior criminal history. Police prosecutor Sergeant Tom Wirawan acknowledged the seriousness of the offences but took into account Uamaki-Mu’s early guilty plea and the fact it spared the victims from having to testify in court. He suggested a significant fine, although he said a suspended prison sentence would normally be appropriate.

    Defence barrister Simon Lewis stated that Uamaki-Mu suffers from depression, anxiety, and has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

  • Top Witness Unveils Startling Details in Madeleine McCann Mystery

    An update has emerged in the long-standing Madeleine McCann case, nearly 17 years after her disappearance from a Portuguese beach resort. The primary suspect in the British girl’s vanishing, Christian Brueckner, is set to face a crucial witness against him in a child rape case scheduled for February.

    The 45-year-old is slated to stand trial next month, facing accusations of raping and sexually assaulting multiple women and a young girl. These incidents are reported to have occurred between 2000 and 2017 when he resided on Portugal’s Algarve coast, the same area where Madeleine was abducted in May 2007 at the age of three.

    Brueckner’s attorney has contested the testimony of Helge Busching, a former friend turned police informant, who played a key role in his prior conviction. Despite claims of falsehood by Brueckner’s lawyer, a German judge has dismissed these assertions.

    Busching, labeled the “most important witness” against the McCann suspect, is anticipated to play a crucial role in another case against the convicted rapist next month. With Busching’s assistance, Brueckner became the prime suspect in Madeleine’s disappearance in 2018.

    Busching had alleged that he stole a camcorder containing video tapes showing Brueckner sexually assaulting several women, leading to his imprisonment for the rape of a 72-year-old American woman. Notably, this incident occurred a year before Madeleine was abducted from a resort in the same town while on holiday with her family.

    Busching informed investigators in Germany about a conversation with Brueckner in which he allegedly remarked on the absence of screams during the discussion of Madeleine’s kidnapping. In 2017, around the 10th anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance, Busching provided Brueckner’s name to Scotland Yard’s Operation Grange team.

    Furthermore, Busching asserted that Brueckner disclosed his involvement in Madeleine’s abduction during a Spanish kite festival in 2008. Expressing his belief in Brueckner’s guilt in 2020, Busching stated that he would reveal the truth during the upcoming trial.

    Despite these developments, Brueckner has not faced charges related to Madeleine McCann’s disappearance. Madeleine went missing from her bed in a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz on May 3, 2007, while her parents were dining nearby. If alive today, she would be 20 years old. Kate and Gerry McCann, aged 55, remain committed to finding their missing daughter, with 18-year-old twins Sean and Amelie.

  • Christa Pike and the Murder of Colleen Slemmer


    Christa Pike was born in 1976 to Carissa Hansen and Emil Glenn Pike in Beckley, West Virginia. Her parents had a tumultuous relationship, being married for two years, divorced for a year after Hansen was found to be cheating, and remarried for another two years after Hansen attempted suicide. Both of them were frequently negligent. An aunt noted that infant Pike would be “crawling around through piles of dog stool all over the house,” and that Hansen wanted to keep partying when she received news that her toddler was experiencing severe seizures. Pike’s paternal grandmother would frequently help care for her; Pike believed she was the only one who ever loved her. When her grandmother died in 1988, Pike would make her first suicide attempt at age 12, for which she received little support.


    Christa Pike appearing before Judge in Court
    Christa Pike appearing before Judge in Court

    Pike’s living situation continued to be unstable throughout her teenage years as she was both the recipient, and perpetrator, of violence. One of her mother’s boyfriends punched her in the face; criminal charges were filed, then settled. While staying with her father’s new family, one of her young half-sisters claimed to have been molested by Pike, causing her father to send her away. Pike additionally claimed to have been sexually assaulted or molested at several points in time; her friends and family doubt these occurrences, noting that she is a pathological liar. In one incident, a man phoned claiming that he was going to rape her; in response, Pike and a friend beat him with a stick in a parking lot.

    Although she had been bright as a child, her unstable home life caused her to frequently change schools, causing her performance in school to deteriorate. In tenth grade, she was sent to a juvenile facility for a year, where she became interested in the Job Corps, a government program aimed at helping low-income youth by offering vocational training and career skills.

    In the fall of 1994, Pike attended the now-closed Job Corps center in Knoxville, Tennessee. Pike began dating a man a year her junior named Tadaryl Shipp. Together, they developed interest in the occult and devil worship.

    Christa became jealous of her Job Corps classmate, 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, who she thought was trying to “steal” her boyfriend from her; friends of Slemmer denied the accusations. Along with friend Shadolla Peterson, 18, Pike planned to lure Slemmer to an isolated, abandoned steam plant near the University of Tennessee campus.

    On January 12, 1995, Pike, Shipp, Peterson, and Slemmer signed out of the dormitory and proceeded to the woods, where Slemmer was told they wanted to make peace by offering her some marijuana. Upon arrival at the secluded location, Slemmer was attacked by Pike and Shipp while Peterson acted as lookout. According to later court testimony, for the next thirty minutes Slemmer was taunted, beaten, and slashed; and a pentagram was carved in her chest. Finally, Pike smashed Slemmer’s skull with a large chunk of asphalt, killing her. Pike kept a piece of Slemmer’s skull.

    Pike began to show off the piece of skull around the school, and within thirty-six hours the three were arrested. The log book showed that Pike, Shipp, Peterson, and Slemmer left together and only three returned. Detectives found the piece of skull in Pike’s jacket pocket. The suspects’ rooms were searched and a copy of the Satanic Bible was found in Shipp’s. Soon after her arrest, Pike confessed to police of the torture and killing of Slemmer, but insisted they were merely trying to scare her and it got out of control.