Fallen TV cooking show host breaks his silence about sex charge shock - despite his lawyer telling him not to speak as he makes a furtive dash to see cops
The fallen TV show star initially attempted to sneak past waiting media, opting to drive around the streets of Sydney 's eastern suburbs, only to return two hours later.
But he opened up to Daily Mail Australia as he left Waverley Police Station after he was charged with child sex offences at his Toukley home on the NSW Central Coast.
'I am holding up as well as possible,' Everett, 66, told Daily Mail Australia.
'My solicitor has advised me not to speak, but I am pleading not guilty.'
He was granted bail with strict conditions that include reporting twice a week.
He has been charged with sexually touching a 16-year-old boy without consent and appeared in Sydney's Parramatta Local Court over the weekend.
On Monday police sought an Apprehended Violence Order against Everett on behalf of a third party identified only as 'MD'.
The matter will be heard at Wyong Local Court on Thursday.
Mandatory interim conditions, including bans on assaulting, threatening, stalking, harassing or intimidating the alleged victim, remain in place.
Officers from the Tuggerah Lakes Police District had begun investigating the alleged incident the day before Everett's arrest.
'Following extensive inquiries, police arrested a 66-year-old man at a home at Toukley,' a statement from NSW Police read.
'The man was taken to Wyong Police Station where he was charged with sexually touching another person without consent.'
Everett spent Saturday night in a cell before his bail hearing at Parramatta Local Court on Sunday.
He may only return to his home to collect his belongings with a police escort, and is forbidden from contacting his alleged victim or any witnesses.
He pleaded not guilty to the charge and denied any wrongdoing when approached by waiting media outside.
Everett was best known for hosting the Channel 10 daytime cooking show Ready Steady Cook for five years from 2006.
He was unceremoniously sacked from the show over the phone in 2011.
In 2022, Everett revealed he was selling off his possessions just 'to survive' after a tough few years during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Everett, who regularly appears at food festivals across the country, told 4BC Afternoons host Rob McKnight he'd 'lost his livelihood' because of the lockdowns.
'There's been a lot of sales on my behalf. I'm selling anything - not down to the garage sale yet - but I've been selling off a lot of things,' Everett said.
'It really hasn't been an easy time. It hasn't. The entertainment industry, a lot of my friends, far less fortunate than I, have had it really, really bad.'
After he was dumped from the show in 2011, he said he was 'disappointed' to have been fired over the phone just before heading overseas on holiday.
Rory Callaghan, the CEO of Southern Star Productions (now Endemol Australia), which produced the series, later defended the decision to sack Everett.
Callaghan told TV Tonight: 'It was me who called him and said, 'Don't bother coming back from Bali.' It was a hard production with him so it was time to move on.'
Speaking to news.com.au in 2019, Everett added: '[Callaghan] was saying that I think I'm greater than the show. I think it meant I thought I was so indispensable and that they couldn't do the show without me.'
In 2023, Everett unleashed on Channel 10 producers for failing to invite him back for the 2024 reboot.
Everett told New Idea magazine that he was devastated and could barely sleep after learning that chef Miguel Maestre was hosting the program.
'I was like a three-year-old for a couple of days, who constantly asks, 'Why, why, why?'' he said.
'They didn't approach me for some reason. Who knows why? It's a shame.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
2 hours ago
- BBC News
Reckoning for Australia's childcare sector after onslaught of abuse cases
Twice a week, Ben Bradshaw drops his young son off at a Sydney childcare centre before heading off to thousands of parents and carers across Australia, the 40-year-old had always been confident that the staff have his child's best interests at in recent months, that trust in the childcare system has been "eroded", the father-of-two says, after several high-profile cases of alleged sexual and physical abuse at centres across Australia."It's that old adage of cockroaches - if you see one in your house, there's 10 that you don't see. These are the ones that get caught. It's more scary the ones that you can't see," he tells the the past few weeks, 2,000 children in Victoria have been urged to undergo infectious disease testing after a childcare worker was charged with the mass sexual abuse of babies; police have named a Sydney man who worked for 60 after-school-care providers and is accused of taking "explicit" images of children under his supervision; a Queensland woman has faced court over allegations she tortured a one-year-old boy; and another two workers in Sydney have been charged after a toddler was left covered in comes as the nation is still reeling from the crimes of childcare worker Ashley Paul Griffith - dubbed "one of Australia's worst paedophiles" - who was late last year sentenced to life in prison for raping and sexually abusing almost 70 series of allegations have sparked panic and fear among parents, child safety advocates have demanded action to fix what they call a dangerously incompetent system, and politicians have promised reform to keep Australia's most vulnerable safe."Some childcare centres are still safe, but the current childcare system is definitely not working to protect children or prioritise their safety," says Hetty Johnston, a leading child protection advocate. "It fails at every step." Rapid growth, greater risks In recent years, there has been a nationwide push to give more children access to early childhood education and care, which research indicates has many positive long-term of dollars have been poured into the sector from federal and state governments, including funding to guarantee three days of childcare for low and middle-income families. Such measures have prompted rapid growth in the sector, with a rush of new centres opening which has deepened a shortage of qualified growth has led to "significant vulnerabilities", says Prof Leah Bromfield, director of the Australian Centre for Child Protection."Whenever you grow something really quickly, that comes with risks," she says, listing off a lack of regulation and monitoring, limited training for managers, and the disparate and casual nature of the workforce."You put all that together and you've created a weak system from the perspective of a predatory perpetrator… a system where it's easier to infiltrate."In the wake of the Melbourne child sexual abuse case where Joshua Dale Brown was charged with 70 counts of abuse against eight babies, the federal government gave itself greater powers to strip funding from providers that breach quality and safety Education Minister Jason Clare said the measure was not designed to "shut down centres" but rather increase pressure for them to "raise standards".But Mr Bradshaw wants more. He says taking away funding from a centre "doesn't stop the crime, it just punishes it"."You have to do things that are proactive in nature." Knee-jerk reactions The spate of alleged crimes have sparked a heated national conversation about how to better protect kids. Limiting the role of men in childcare is one of the most controversial was a public call to ban men from certain tasks such as changing nappies and taking children to the toilet – though some warned this could place extra pressure on female staff."It's not about banning male educators, but about providing families with agency and informed choice," says Louise Edmonds, an advocate for child sex abuse case prompted G8 Education – who owned the centre where he worked - to introduce so-called "intimate care waivers", giving parents and carers the opportunity to choose who carried out private and sensitive duties. It also pledged to install CCTV at all of its centres. Ms Johnston - who founded child protection group Bravehearts - says these are natural responses, but cautioned that, though "men are definitely a higher risk", women do abuse children too and offenders can do so in all kinds of settings."They are opportunistic… when others don't pay attention, when they are distracted, complacent, disinterested or too trusting, they create 'opportunities' for offenders."Other practical measures centres could adopt to improve child safety include having two educators with direct line of sight of children at all times and getting rid of blind spots in centres - replacing solid doors with glass panes, eliminating windowless walls, and putting more mirrors up to create "incidental supervision"."It's all about reducing opportunities for predators to isolate or conceal in nooks and crannies," Ms Johnston says. Hiding in plain sight But massive system reform is also long overdue, experts 2017, more than 400 recommendations emerged from a years-long royal commission into child sex abuse in institutional settings – like churches, schools and childcare - but critics say progress has stalled on some of the most significant of those outstanding recommendations, to be discussed by the country's attorneys-general at a meeting this month, is to overhaul Australia's checks on those who work with each state and territory complete what is essentially a police check required for those who work alongside children, but they don't share the information with each other. Advocates have called for a nationalised system, but some say the checks themselves don't go far enough."It's inconsistent, relies too heavily on prior convictions," Ms Edmonds instance, many say, the system should capture red flags such as formal complaints, workplace warnings, police intelligence, and people identified as alleged abusers in confidential applications to the national redress scheme set up after the royal a broader net is important, experts argue, as child abuse allegations can be difficult to stand up in court. Often the witnesses are young children, who are either non-verbal or have limited vocabulary, may struggle with memory, and often have a lack of situational understanding."Catching someone red-handed and being able to prove it beyond reasonable doubt is almost impossible," Ms Johnston says. That's why Prof Bromfield is among those calling for a national registration scheme for the childcare sector – like those that exist for doctors or teachers. It would require workers to prove their qualifications, could provide a detailed work history, and would bind them all by a code of argue the system could also capture many of the things the working- with-children checks currently do not."Often in child sexual abuse cases, when you look back, you see lots and lots of red flags," Prof Bromfield says."There might be a pattern, but [at the moment] we just don't see that because they are moving between states or between sectors or between providers."Mr Bradshaw says having access to more information about staff would help parents like him make informed is a necessity for his family, he explains, as he works full-time and his wife, a high school teacher, works four days a often, there's little detail about the childcare centre's staff "beyond the pictures on the wall" of the teachers and educators, so parents often have to assess a provider "based on vibes"."It's a bit of a blackbox and you're bound because you need to have your kids in childcare so you can pay for living in a big city."That's where greater education for parents is needed too, Prof Bromfield says, so they know what questions to ask and, in the worst-case scenarios, how to spot signs of grooming include enquiring about a provider's child safety policies, asking about its staff turnover, and assessing the physical spaces for any visibility issues. There also needs to be better, more regular training for managers in the sector on how to prevent and identify problematic behaviour or patterns, experts Prof Bromfield - who was part of the team which conducted the royal commission into child sex abuse – these are conversations she has been having for over a she is hopeful the current crisis will shock Australia into taking greater action."Perhaps one of the things that will happen is there will be greater political will to prioritise safety for children," Prof Bromfield says."The big lesson is that we can never rest on our laurels when it comes to children's safety."Perpetrators just keep getting smarter, working around the systems we've got. We can't forget the lessons of the past… and we can't assume that this is a problem that's gone away."
Telegraph
4 hours ago
- Telegraph
Armed police arrest gardener over his arsenal of allotment tools
Armed police arrested a gardener for 'carrying a knife' as he walked home with his allotment tools. Samuel Rowe, 35, was detained, kept in a cell and cautioned after being accused of carrying a ' large dagger ' last month. He had just tended to his allotment vegetable patch and was trimming the hedges outside his home with a sickle when armed police swooped on July 3. His Japanese gardening trowel, a sickle and a fruit harvesting tool were confiscated before he was taken to a police station. He was then held in a cell for more than seven hours before he was released when he accepted a caution for possession of an offensive weapon. The theatre manager said he was left terrified when officers armed with guns turned up outside his home and now wants the caution overturned. 'Some kind of extremist' Mr Rowe, of Manchester, said: 'I was coming back from my allotment in the morning. 'I'd just got home and started trimming the hedge at the top of my house, and then I heard shouting and it was armed police – two armed police telling me to 'drop the knife.' 'At the time I had my Japanese gardening sickle in my hand that I was using, so I dropped that along with the privet I'd been cutting. 'Then they turned me around, pushed me up against the house, handcuffed me behind my back, took everything out my belt. 'Then they asked me why I was there and where I'd been. 'Eventually they put me in the back of their van and took me to Cheadle Hulme police station, which is miles from my house. 'They got into their head I was some kind of extremist going out with knives.' Conflicting accounts He said he was then kept in cells and asked if he wanted a solicitor, but he never got to see one. At interview, he says police asked him bizarre questions such as what an allotment was. He has been growing fruit and veg – including rhubarb, broad beans, artichokes, and tomatoes, at his allotment since 2022. Now, he is worried that the police caution he accepted will appear on background checks if he applies for future job interviews. Greater Manchester Police said firearms officers were sent as they were the closest to the scene after they were alerted by a member of the public. The force denies Samuel was ever refused legal advice, saying it tried multiple times to contact a solicitor and he chose to decline legal advice in the end. A Greater Manchester Police spokesperson said: 'At around 12.20pm on 3 July, we acted on a call from a member of the public that a man was walking in public wearing khaki clothing and in possession of a knife. 'Nearby officers were flagged down by the caller, who directed them towards a male. 'He was subsequently stopped and a small sickle, a large dagger which was in a sheath on a belt, and a peeling knife, were seized. 'He was arrested on suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon and taken into custody. 'He admitted the offence and was given a conditional caution, which entailed advice and guidance around the legislation of knives and bladed weapons in a public place.'
BBC News
6 hours ago
- BBC News
Three held as drugs in socks and fishing line found near prison
Two men and a 13-year-old boy have been arrested after drug-filled socks attached to a fishing line were found near a Police said officers on "a proactive patrol" near HMP Ranby spotted a parked car near the jail at about 21:00 BST on men were detained and an empty drone case and fishing line were found in the boot of the vehicle.A bag of socks filled with drugs, needles and other items was found in a nearby bush, a force spokesman said, with a drone attached to a fishing line and tied to a sock with drugs also discovered. Two men, aged 34 and 44, were arrested on suspicion of possession with intent to supply Class A drugs and conspiracy to convey prohibited items into a prison, and a 13-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion of possession with intent to supply Class A drugs. All three are currently in custody, police Rob Harrison, neighbourhood policing inspector for Bassetlaw, said: "The neighbourhood team has been working very hard over recent months, alongside prison staff, to tackle the problems associated with drugs being taken into HMP Ranby."This latest stop has allowed us to prevent these drugs being conveyed into the prison and the substances will now be destroyed."
