A WODONGA couple have faced court after allegedly kidnapping two people, holding them against their will for several weeks, raping them and stealing their money.
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Kimberly Joyce Cramp, 27, and Alexander Trewin, 26, face 25 and 20 charges respectively including unlawful imprisonment, rape and dishonestly obtaining money by deception.
They are also accused of drugging one of the women to have sex with her.
The mother of one of the alleged victims – who has special needs and occasionally uses a wheelchair – cried in Wodonga Magistrates Court this week as she spoke of her concerns.
“I knew something was wrong, but she couldn’t tell me,” she said of a phone call to her daughter.
It’s alleged the two women were taken from Warrnambool, against their will, in August or October 2016, and held against their will in Wodonga.
The court heard Cramp and Trewin had been controlling, with multiple witness saying many aspects of the matter were strange and unusual.
While the women were allowed to leave the home with alleged offenders, the court heard they were closely monitored.
The father of the first alleged victim said his daughter visited his home with the accused pair and realised something was up.
“It wasn’t until towards the end that things started to look a little bit wrong,” he said.
“We just weren’t able to talk to her.”
The father said Cramp and Trewin wouldn’t let her daughter be on her own.
“Each time we were on our own with them, one of them was there,” he said.
“They wouldn’t let her be on her own while they were at our house, at all.”
It’s alleged $14,000 was taken from two bank accounts between August 16 and October 16 last year.
The court heard allegations of drugging followed by sexual assaults, including alleged incidents involving an object.
The couple are both accused of taking part in the sexual offences.
The first victim's mother said she had largely been unable to reach her daughter after she moved into the couple’s home.
The pair allegedly had control of her phone and finances, and the calls would be on speaker.
Her father thought it was “weird” that Cramp and Trewin would call on loudspeaker and said the “phone calls (were) a bit suss".
He laughed off suggestions he had given Cramp permission to discipline his daughter or take money from her account.
“I wouldn't allow that,” he said.
“That would have rung alarm bells.”
He said he didn't know Cramp.
“I never knew who she was until she turned up to my house, basically.”
The man spoke of an incident where Cramp went “nuts” during the visit to his home and claimed she was his daughter's legal guardian.
His daughter raised the allegations during the visit.
“I wanted to get my daughter away from them,” he said, adding the pair “knew they’d been caught” after being confronted.
Both of the alleged victims have medical needs, with the first woman needing daily treatment from a nurse.
A friend of the second woman spoke of suspected fake Facebook accounts being made in her name and the pair being “ given things at night time to shut them up”.
Dr Ami Thies said the first woman had started taking anxiety medication for the first time after the alleged offences.
“She has quite complex problems,” Dr Thies said.
A committal hearing ran in the Wodonga Magistrates Court on Monday and Tuesday, and will return on Thursday.
The hearing will decide if there’s enough evidence to commit Cramp and Trewin to stand trial.