Financier in court on bestiality and cruelty charges
By Les Kennedy
October 13, 2005 - 12:32PM
Brendan Francis McMahon, 36, leaves court after appearing on charges of aggravated animal cruelty.
Brendan Francis McMahon was like a proverbial rabbit caught in a spotlight today.
Accused of bestiality with rabbits and their mutilation deaths, the 36-year-old New Zealand-born businessman found himself in the glare and flashes of television and newspaper cameras when he left Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court.
It was the first time the financier from Tamarama has had to face media in public since being granted $1000 bail three weeks ago. That court hearing was brought on a week ahead of schedule after he had been held in custody pending psychiatric assessment.
McMahon refused to comment about the charges against him as he left the court with his barrister, Doug Marr, moments after he made a brief appearance before Deputy Chief Magistrate Helen Syme.
In addition to the bestiality charges, he is charged with 18 counts of aggravated cruelty to 18 rabbits whose mutilated and partially skinned carcasses, many with their skulls crushed and ears cut off, were found throughout the Sydney CBD over a six-week period in July and August.
Some of the rabbits were found dumped in a lane at The Rocks or inside women's toilets in the York Street building where he operated a financial planning and mortgage brokerage, Meares-McMahon Capital with Jason Meares, the brother of Jodhi Packer.
McMahon has yet to enter a formal plea.
Following his arrest last month, he maintained through his legal counsel that he had been in a drug-induced psychosis caused by smoking the methamphetamine drug "ice" when he committed the acts of cruelty.
According to a statement of police facts, McMahon bought the rabbits, sometimes up to three at a time, from Sydney pet stores with his company American Express card in the name of Meares-McMahon Capital Pty Ltd.
McMahon was granted continuing bail after Mr Marr told Ms Syme that he had received the full brief of police evidence against his client only on Wednesday and his legal team needed more time to examine it.
In ordering McMahon to reappear before the court on November 10, Ms Syme ordered that he adhere to existing bail conditions, which include that he report three times a week to Waverley Police, continue seeing a psychiatrist on a weekly basis and not go within 50 metres of any pet shop.
The order includes McMahon not entering rural lands.
Just looooooove that last sentence . . . barred from rural lands and pet shops. What a tremedously sick man . . . .
