A man due to stand trial accused of keeping women in servitude has been charged with 10 new offences including rape and drug supply.
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Brisbane District Court judge Paul Smith on Friday was presented with an indictment against Matthew James Markcrow containing 10 new charges.
The 38-year-old was in January 2024 committed to stand trial on more than a dozen charges involving five women in the Brisbane Magistrates Court.
Markcrow was accused of keeping women in servitude and allegedly got one tattooed after drugging her, the court heard in January.
The new charges against Markcrow included one count of rape at the southern Brisbane suburb of Mount Gravatt East between November and December 2020.
Markcrow was also charged with three counts of conducting a business involving servitude, two counts of attempting to conduct such a business and one count of knowingly carrying on the business of unlawful prostitution.
Prosecutors alleged Markcrow committed the servitude-related offences at Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast, the inner Brisbane suburb of Kangaroo Point and Mount Gravatt East between May 2019 and February 2021.
Markcrow was also charged with supplying dangerous drugs at Surfers Paradise in May 2019 and possessing drugs and refusing police access to a digital device at Mount Gravatt East.
Markcrow was not required to attend court on Friday and Judge Smith granted a six-week adjournment so his legal representative could be provided with a brief of evidence from prosecutors.
Magistrate Anne Thacker in January committed Markcrow to stand trial in the Brisbane District Court on a date yet to be decided.
She dismissed some charges for which prosecutors offered no evidence.
The previous charges include three counts of conducting a business involving servitude and two counts of attempting to conduct a business involving servitude.
One woman alleged at the committal hearing she was forcibly made to have a tattoo after being stupefied with a drug and taken to a tattoo artist by Markcrow while under the effects of the drug.
The woman says she woke up in the morning with a tattoo.
Other women subject to alleged servitude did not describe being drugged, prosecutor Lana Maleckas said in January.
"Their statements do state that some of them agreed to be tattooed because they were fearful."
Prosecutors alleged earlier that women were given stupefying drugs, subject to controlled living, financial and work conditions, and had been tattooed as being Markcrow's property.
Markcrow's social media at the time of his first court appearance showed four images of "property of Matt M" topped with depictions of a devil's pitchfork and an angel halo.
"If I had all the names it would look more like a scroll," Markcrow posted under the images.
Australian Associated Press
