ONE of several family members accused of depraved acts on children as young as three including filming their alleged rapes at a circus school in the NSW Blue Mountains has been granted bail.

Former police officer Paul Cook, 52, appeared by audio visual link in Penrith District Court this afternoon as several of his relatives wiped away tears in the public gallery.

Mr Cook, along with his sister Therese Ann Cook and her daughters Yyani Cook-Williams and Clarissa Meredith, are among seven people accused of 127 charges that include allegedly raping boys under the age of eight, while others allegedly filmed the acts, according to court documents. The charges also include kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault of a child and producing child abuse material.

Court documents also allege that “blood rituals” were performed on the children. All four of the accused named have pleaded not guilty to the charges. The incidents are alleged to have taken place against three young boys taking part in the Blue Mountains training circus school in several locations including Parramatta, Leura, Lawson, Mount Victoria and Katoomba, between 2014 and 2016.

Mr Cook, along with his named co-accused, has been in prison since their dramatic arrest in February. The names of the other three people charged are suppressed because at the time the alleged offences were committed — between 2014 and 2016 — they were under the age of 18. Mr Cook was the only one of the accused who applied for bail today.

Defence lawyer Bryan Wrench told the court the allegations will be shown to be either one of the “worst cases” of child abuse the state has ever seen or “one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in NSW”. Magistrate Roger Clisdell said at least some of the allegations appeared “implausible”.

He said that “anyone facing a potential life imprisonment is always going to be a flight risk” but that he “couldn’t be satisfied there’s an unacceptable risk he’ll commit further offences”. As part of the bail conditions, Mr Cook must not be alone with a child aged under 16 years, not contact his co-accused or accusers, report to police daily, and surrender his passport. Because the case was heard late on Friday, Mr Cook may not be released until Monday.

The court previously heard that on one occasion, 58-year-old Therese Cook allegedly choked one of the young boy victims in order to sexually assault him at Katoomba in April 2016.

Detectives allege she was the ringleader who participated in and organised the systemic rape and detention of the boys, inciting her daughters Yyani Cook-Williams and Clarissa Meredith to have sex with the youngsters while her younger brother Mr Cook filmed it.

Mr Cook is accused of being in the company of his sister while she allegedly raped one of the young boy victims.

He is also accused of filming a teenage male raping one of the boys aged under eight and another person, court documents allege.

Mr Cook, who is charged with five offences, worked as a nurse at The Sydney’s Children Hospital in the 1980s before spending several years as a social and youth worker. The court today heard he is also a former police officer and also had a stint at organisations specialising in helping vulnerable children, young people and their families such as the Ted Noffs Foundation, Caretakers Cottage and the Taldumande Youth Services.

The 43 charges against Therese Cook include sexual intercourse without consent of a person under ten years old, indecent assault, deprive liberty, aggravated sexual assault in company and choke a person with intent to committing sexual assault. Therese Cook has worked in health and education and formed the circus in 2009.

The Daily Telegraph reported that she previously posted online about how she felt compelled to pursue a life in the circus arts after she was “tragically lost from the back of a travelling circus truck shortly after birth”.

The Facebook page of her circus school, which started in 2009, was littered with photos of the grandmother teaching children tricks and performing as a clown during street parades through the Blue Mountains.

The school is described on its website as “a family friendly environment”.

Therese Cook also promoted herself as a teacher and carer at the Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre in Penrith and boasted that she once obtained a scholarship to train and attend the first National Indigenous and Social Circus Training and Conference.

Therese Cook’s daughter Yyani Cook-Williams, 29, is charged with eight offences including sexual assault of one of the young boys in the company of Therese Cook after Ms Cook-Williams allegedly deprived the boy of his liberty before the assault.

In one of the most heinous allegations against her she is accused of “inciting” a little boy to rape another child on Anzac Day last year. Police allege she also raped both of the boys in company with her mother.

Yyani Cook-Williams, who is an actress, burlesque dancer and a co-convener of the circus, was due to start teaching a music course for toddlers before her arrest.

Clarissa Meredith, 23, who has previously been referred to as Clarissa Cook-Williams in court by the family’s lawyer, is facing 13 charges relating to raping one of the boys aged seven in the company of two other juvenile offenders.

Therese Cook, Paul Cook and Clarissa Meredith were living in the same dilapidated Katoomba house at the time of their arrests, while Yyani Cook-Williams was arrested at Canterbury in southwestern Sydney.

The four named co-accused will next appear in court on June 1.