Three people have been charged after a man allegedly interfered with a corpse at a funeral home south of Brisbane.
Police allege two men and a woman visited Swanborough Funerals at Browns Plains about 1pm yesterday after arranging to view the body of a man who was known to them.
It is alleged one of the men interfered with the corpse and fled the scene before police arrived.
Police will allege they entered the funeral home armed with scissors, scalpels and blades to wound a body.
The second man and the woman were arrested at the scene, while the other man was arrested about 6:30pm at a Browns Plains residence.
Brian Christian Wong, Cassandra Hunter and Changmin Koo faced Brisbane Magistrates Court this morning, each charged with misconduct with a corpse, entering a premises with intent to commit an indictable offence, and being armed with intent to enter a premises and commit an indictable offence.
No applications were made for bail and their matters have been adjourned.
Swanborough Funerals owner Esther Swanborough said Mr Wong visited the funeral home, with his two other relatives, to discuss funeral arrangements for his father when he expressed a “deep need” to see him.
Ms Swanborough said a mortician prepared the man’s body before they were taken to the home’s private viewing space.
Esther Swanborough says the incident has affected her emotionally. (ABC News)
She said she was asked to leave to allow for “cultural practices”, which was “not an unusual request”.
Ms Swanborough said when she returned to the room she realised “something very different was happening” and claims she saw “gloves were being put away”.
“My impression was that something else … was occurring,” she said.
“I said, ‘What have you done,’ and that was when … I started piecing things together, and we called the police straight away.”
Ms Swanborough said once the police were called, her focus was on caring for the deceased.
She said it had affected her emotionally as she cared deeply about the industry.
Source: www.abc.net.au
