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Ex-Agape cult member John Mouhalos facing jail for spending three years on the run

Adelaide Now, Australia/April 15, 2013

By Sean Fewster

John Mouhalos's 2010 assault and firearms case gave the world its first insight into the strange and secretive world of the Agape Ministries doomsday cult.

His arrest in Victoria last week, after three years as a missing person, made him the first member of the organisation's fugitive hierarchy to be taken into custody.

Now Mouhalos stands poised for another Agape "first"; on Friday, he risks becoming the first member jailed since the cult collapsed.

Mouhalos, 55, faced the District Court today and admitted breaching his two-year bond for aggravated assault and firearms charges.

The former finance broker had, in 2007, threatened a man who owed him $50,000.

In 2010, Agape Ministries founder Rocco Leo - who preached that only he could save people from being beheaded or laced with poisoned microchips during a forecast 2012 apocalypse - gave evidence on Mouhalos's behalf.

After refusing to to swear on the Bible, he claimed Mouhalos's victim had vowed "I will get the Colombians on to you", and had a "haul of weapons" in his car.

"After that, I had to close the church to the public and put, shall we say, security guards on the church," Leo told the court.

Mouhalos was given a two-year good-behaviour bond but went missing, prompting police to issue a warrant.

Subsequently, Leo and the rest of his inner circle fled to Fiji, refusing to return to Adelaide to face criminal charges and civil lawsuits.

The Australian Taxation Office stripped Agape of its tax-exempt status as a religion and demanded it pay $4 million in back taxes.

Court documents claim Agape's empire spanned two states, eight properties, 13 vehicles and 10 bank accounts.

Leo was also sued by former parishioners in two million-dollar lawsuits.

On Thursday, Mouhalos was arrested in Victoria and extradited to Adelaide, where he was granted bail on Friday.

Yesterday he admitted breaching his suspended sentence by failing to be under the supervision of the Department of Correctional Services, and by failing to remain within South Australia.

Judge Gordon Barrett remanded him on continuing bail to face sentencing submissions on Friday.

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