The mother of a baby boy found dead beneath blankets in an Adelaide motel room had shared a series of disturbing posts online before her arrest.

Benjamin Nicholas Houghton, 40, and Yue Ning Lieu, 42, will remain behind bars for at least seven months after police discovered the infant’s body during a welfare check at the Tollgate Motel in Glen Osmond, in Adelaide’s south, on Saturday.

Police said a post-mortem examination found the boy was between six and seven months old and had been dead for “a period of time”.

Authorities said the pair had been living at the motel since arriving in Adelaide earlier this year. They had not been in contact with South Australian authorities before their arrests on Saturday.

Houghton and Lieu were charged with criminal neglect and destroying human remains to pervert the course of justice.

Houghton also faces one charge of hindering police.

The couple appeared before Adelaide Magistrates Court on Monday via a bedside hearing.

Neither applied for bail, and both were remanded in custody until May 3, 2027.

Lieu began posting disturbing material on Facebook and Instagram earlier this year.

Three days before her arrest, she shared several posts claiming that unidentified people were trying to spy on her.

“Stop teleporting flies into my room,” she wrote.

Later that day, Lieu wrote about the “advantages” of time travel and expressed concern about “gauss equipped” trucks passing by and striking her with “magnetic weapons”.

She posted several times a day on Facebook until the account fell silent on Saturday morning, when police found her son’s body beneath blankets in the motel room.

An Instagram account linked to Lieu’s blog, Health in Lieu, had been inactive in the weeks before her arrest. Earlier posts included photographs of people she believed were “spies”, along with AI-generated horror videos.

One video posted in March appeared to compare Houghton, her co-accused, to a monster and described him as the “spirit of hatred”.

The Daily Mail does not suggest that Lieu’s social media posts indicate wrongdoing by either her or Houghton.

 ‘I was a healer wanting to share my gifts with this world but today I am a TI living in a tent, sharing truth before it becomes illegal,’ her Instagram profile states.

In her blog Health in Lieu, she claimed she was a Chinese Traditional Medicine practitioner.

‘​I am not here to be politically correct. I’m unapologetically Australian,’  Lieu wrote.

‘I’m blunt, and I’m direct. I also hold very strong opinions, I didn’t give up my life in the corporate world to hide behind another ‘professional’ façade. So if you can handle that, please read on.’

Her last post in April 2025 titled ‘Help Me in My Fight Against Tyranny’ accused governments of using ‘mind control’ to ‘enslave us’.

‘I fight every day in ways that you cannot comprehend (unless you have been in my shoes),’ she wrote.

‘Our government is using our money for research and development in scientific endeavours not to make our lives better, but to better enslave us.

‘Their current focus is mind control, hence their interest in quantum science, and the popping up of private DNA labs is not to ‘solve crime’.

‘Guess who the guinea pigs are? People like me. I resist and if you help me resist the tyranny of the communist government, you help yourselves resist too.’

Police confirmed that Houghton and Lieu previously lived in Victoria and NSW.

Lieu and her then two-year-old daughter were reported missing in Sydney in May 2021, sparking serious concerns for their wellbeing.

Lieu attended a police station in Canberra eight days later and informed police that her daughter was staying at a relative’s home in Victoria.

SA Police declined to comment when contacted by the Daily Mail on Tuesday night about Lieu’s daughter.

Specialist crime detectives have taken over the investigation into the baby boy’s death due to the ‘nature and complexity of the incident’.

Police are seeking assistance from anyone who has stayed at the Tollgate Motel, and specifically anyone who has information about the occupants of room four to contact Crime Stoppers.

‘No further comment will be made at this stage in the investigation,’ the statement added.

Do you know more? Email tips@dailymail.com.au 

– READ MORE: Boy, 13, who was on bail allegedly kills Sydney dad 

Katie Price has denied being “angry and vengeful” towards her former husband, Kieran Hayler, who is accused of raping and sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl.

The media personality gave evidence for a second day from behind a screen during Hayler’s trial at Lewes Crown Court in East Sussex.

Hayler, 39, denies three charges of rape and one of sexual assault relating to an alleged incident involving a teenager in West Sussex in 2016.

During cross-examination, Price, 48, rejected the suggestion that she had been “angry and vengeful” towards her former husband and had pursued a vendetta against him.

She also told the court she had not followed media coverage of the trial because she had been “handcuffed to Suella Braverman all week” while appearing on a Channel 4 programme.

Hayler’s barrister, Arlette Piercy, asked Price during her evidence whether she “loved revenge or is it just TV?”

Price replied: “It’s TV, it’s what I say. It’s what drives me in my work.”

Ms Piercy then told her: “You are angry and vengeful towards the defendant Kieran Hayler – you have evidenced a vendetta against him over a number of years.”

Price responded: “That is not true.”

Asked whether she had been monitoring reports about the trial, Price said: “No, because I’ve been handcuffed to Suella Braverman all week” – a reference to the Channel 4 programme Celebrity Handcuffed and the former Conservative Home Secretary, who is now a Reform UK MP.

Price added: “I haven’t followed any reports.”

On Monday, she told the court that she had confronted Hayler and asked whether he had “done stuff” with the 13-year-old girl.

Price also described exchanging messages with the alleged victim, telling jurors that she could tell from the messages that the girl was “afraid”.

Earlier in the trial, jurors heard that Hayler believes he has been set up by his former wife.

The investigation began after the alleged victim contacted the NSPCC in 2021. The charity subsequently referred the matter to police.

Police first interviewed Hayler in January 2022. He denied that any of the allegations had occurred and said nothing sexual had taken place.

Asked about messages exchanged with the complainant, Price said: “I can’t remember the exact messages but it was that Kieran had tried to kiss her, that he had done stuff to her.”

Pressed on what was said, Ms Price told the court: ‘Definitely a kiss and that he said he loved her.

‘I wanted to get information out of (the complainant) because it’s serious. I could tell that she was, like, afraid.’

Ms Price said she was ‘really shocked’ by the allegations about her then-husband, telling jurors: ‘I was shocked – like, really shocked. It was a different kettle of fish, it’s a child.’

Asked by prosecutor Ryan Richter what Hayler’s response was when confronted, Ms Price said: ‘I can’t remember his response but his response all the time was, “No, I hadn’t”.’ 

She said she did not speak to the girl about the allegations face-to-face, and was asked whether she asked her to report it to the police.

Ms Price added: ‘I was going through it myself. I was having a breakdown at that point. I had to go in the Priory.’

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Six Flags Goliath Ride Souvenir Photos Captured Moment Father Flew From His Seat

Giving evidence to jurors last Tuesday, the complainant told the court that Hayler texted her after the third alleged rape, saying, ‘I love you goodnight,’ and she replied: ‘I love you too.’

Jurors heard when the trial opened on Monday last week that Hayler would say Ms Price made up the allegations as part of a campaign against him.

Hayler believes the allegations were ‘created’ and he was being ‘set up’ after the breakdown of their marriage.

The alleged victim’s mother last week told jurors her daughter liked the way Mr Hayler talked to her, saying: ‘She said he told her he didn’t have any friends and she could be his best friend. She liked the way he spoke to her.’

Asked why she did not tell anybody else about the rape allegations until after Ms Price contacted social services in 2018, the mother said: ‘I had to keep her secret and her trust. 

‘I couldn’t tell my husband because I knew what the consequences would be. I didn’t want any of this for her.’ 

The mother has denied she was influenced by Katie Price to come to court and said her daughter was not interested in becoming a celebrity.

In a text message exchange between Ms Price and the girl, the jury heard Ms Price offered to make her a ‘little star’.

The messages were read out to her mother during her second day in the witness box.

Arlette Piercy, for the defence, asked the mother if she was aware of the messages. 

The witness replied: ‘My daughter wasn’t interested in becoming a star.’ 

Ms Piercy challenged the mother on what she knew about the allegations and when, asking: ‘You didn’t believe anything had happened, did you, and you didn’t do anything about it did you?’

The mother replied: ‘Yes, I did. I believed my daughter.’ 

Messages sent in May 2017 between the alleged victim and Ms Price were last week read to the jury, in which Price asked her about rumours regarding Hayler. 

The complainant said she did not remember the exchange, but the court was told Price asked her whether Mr Hayler fancied her and if he tried to kiss her.

In one message, Price wrote: ‘I won’t say anything and I promise I’ll protect you. I’m only asking as this is a serious allegation to say.’

The girl, then aged 14, replied: ‘It was just a flirt thing and he knew it was wrong. Nothing happened.’

Price replied: ‘I won’t bring up any more, just want truth. I will make you a little star.’

Former reality TV star Hayler met Ms Price in 2012 and proposed on Christmas Day. They married at a luxury Caribbean resort the following year.

In a previous statement, Sussex Police said: ‘We can confirm Kieran Hayler, of Northchapel, West Sussex, has been charged with three counts of rape and one count of sexual assault against a 13-year-old girl.

‘The offences are alleged to have occurred at an address in West Sussex between June 1 and October 13, 2016.

‘The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has received support from specially trained officers as our enquiries continue.’

A spokesman for Hayler has previously said: ‘Kieran Hayler strongly denies the allegations made against him in their entirety.

‘Mr Hayler is fully engaged and has been co-operating with the police throughout the investigation and will continue to do so.

‘He looks forward to his name being cleared, believing in the judicial system to do so.’

The alleged victim is not part of Hayler or Ms Price’s extended families.

Hayler denies rape and sexual assault. The trial at Lewes Crown Court continues.

Australia’s first serial killer to be granted parole refused to answer questions as he returned to the community after spending 26 years behind bars.

James Vlassakis, the youngest of three notorious killers involved in South Australia’s grisly Snowtown Bodies in the Barrels murders during the 1990s, left the Adelaide Pre-Release Centre shortly after noon on Tuesday.

A case officer drove him in a Toyota RAV4 SUV to the North East Community Corrections Centre at Holden Hill, in Adelaide’s northern suburbs. Vlassakis attended a 90-minute appointment at the facility.

The 46-year-old had a fresh haircut and had shaved off the goatee he had worn since first appearing in court in 2001. He was dressed in a black T-shirt bearing the word ‘freestyler’—possibly a reference to his newfound, limited freedom.

Vlassakis killed his half-brother Troy Youde in a bathtub at a rented house in Murray Bridge in 1998. He had been imprisoned since 2002 for his involvement in four of the 11 Bodies in the Barrels killings.

He was 18 when he killed his 24-year-old stepbrother, David Johnson, inside the abandoned State Bank building in Snowtown in 1999. The town is about 150km north of Adelaide and had a population of fewer than 500 people.

Johnson was the only victim killed inside Snowtown itself. The murderers concealed the dismembered remains of eight of their 11 victims there.

The remains were discovered floating in hydrochloric acid inside six blue 44-gallon plastic barrels. The killers had attempted to dissolve the bodies, making it initially difficult for police to identify the victims.

Vlassakis lured his stepbrother to the bank vault by claiming a cheap computer was available for sale there.

Court evidence stated that Bunting and Wagner were waiting inside the vault. They overpowered Johnson, killed him and reportedly fried and ate part of his flesh.

The Daily Mail approached Vlassakis as he left the community corrections centre after his 90-minute afternoon appointment.

A reporter asked whether he had anything to say to the families of his victims and how he felt about two of those victims being members of his own family.

He was also asked whether he was pleased to be back in Adelaide—the area where Wagner and Bunting had hunted for victims. Bunting had been described as a father figure to Vlassakis during the period of the brutal murders.

Vlassakis is barred from speaking to the media under the conditions of his parole.

He repeatedly declined to answer, keeping his piercing blue eyes lowered as he followed his case officer to a waiting vehicle.

In an apparent attempt to avoid the Daily Mail reporter, he mistakenly reached for the front door on the driver’s side of the reverse-parked Toyota.

In 2025, Vlassakis’ approved bid for parole was overturned by the SA Government, which again tried to block his release this year.

But in September, a legal challenge failed and he was transferred to the Adelaide Pre-Release Centre, where he will enjoy low-security imprisonment until he can return to the community under strict, lifelong parole conditions next year.

Vlassakis’ co-murderers, John Bunting and Robert Wagner, are serving life sentences without the possibility of parole at nearby Yatala Labour Prison.

Accomplice Mark Haydon walked free in 2024 after serving a 25-year sentence.

Vlassakis was also involved in the sadistic torture and killing of 18-year-old Frederick Brooks, after his role model Bunting claimed he was ‘touching up little girls’.

He also pleaded guilty to taking part in the murder of disabled 29-year-old Gary O’Dwyer.

Vlassakis was just 18 when he was arrested for murder after police stormed the bank vault in Snowtown in May 1999, making the grisly barrel discovery that would haunt the village in the state’s Mid North forever and inspire a 2011 movie by the same name.

Bunting was the ringleader of the murders.

He killed people he suspected of being paedophiles or homosexuals – with little evidence – and plotted out the murders on a ‘rock-spider wall’ containing names of his targets interconnected with string.

The murderers often impersonated their victims, collecting their government benefits after the person had died.

After pleading guilty, Vlassakis became a witness for the crown, helping secure the convictions of Bunting, Wagner and Haydon.

He will now spend the next year learning to reassimilate to society, with prisoners at the Pre-Release Centre encouraged to spend time in the community.

Around 84 mixed-gender inmates are housed in low-security, self-contained cabins overlooking busy Grand Junction Road, where they do their own laundry and are free to exercise on a grassed half-football oval.

Some are in charge of maintaining the facility’s gardens, while others are seen joining work gangs that depart the centre each morning. 

It’s also understood prisoners spend time with rescue animals, with dogs from Greyhounds as Pets SA adoption service seen entering the facility on Tuesday afternoon.

Many inmates appear to have struck up friendships behind the razor wire, and are seen strolling the grounds in pairs and groups after work detail is complete. 

When Vlassakis is released, he will be subject to strict parole conditions for the remainder of his life.

He is forbidden from entering Snowtown, as well as nine other geographical locations due to their proximity to victims’ families.

He is strictly prohibited from contacting the victims’ families, as well as speaking to the media or profiting from his crimes.

A curfew, along with drug and alcohol testing, will be enforced, along with ongoing psychological treatment. 

He must seek permission from the parole board to leave the state.

Any breach of these conditions will see him back in custody.

Until his move to the Adelaide Pre-Release Centre, Vlassakis was in protective custody at Mt Gambier Prison, in South Australia’s south-east, due to his role in helping secure convictions for Bunting, Wagner and Haydon.

Haydon, who was convicted as an accomplice for helping store and move the bodies, was released into the community in 2024 and is believed to live in Adelaide’s north-western suburbs.

Until May, Vlassakis’ image had been suppressed for his own protection for 25 years. 

Bunting and Wagner were locked up for life receiving 11 and 10 consecutive terms of life imprisonment respectively, with the remaining victims including Clinton Tresize, Ray Davies, Michelle Gardiner, Vanessa Lane, Thomas Trevilyan, Gavin Porter and Elizabeth Haydon.

Prosecutors were unable to secure a conviction for a 12th victim, Suzanne Allen, who the defence argued had died of a heart attack before she was dismembered.

In his decision to approve Vlassakis’ first steps toward total freedom, Parole Administrative Review Commissioner David Lovell KC referred to the influence of Bunting, but said there was no danger of that relationship continuing.

‘It is clear that this same power dynamic cannot be replicated, given Mr Bunting was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole and that Mr Vlassakis is now of a more mature age,’ he wrote.

He said that while Vlassakis had ‘significant’ drug problems before being taken into custody on June 2, 1999, he noted the inmate had only returned three positive results from 29 tests during his time in prison.

A friend of Vlassakis’ previously told the Mail that he suffered from a heroin addiction at the time he committed his heinous crimes. 

Mr Lovell also acknowledged that Vlassakis ‘demonstrated excellent behaviour while in custody and there is no suggestion that he displayed any violent behaviour during this time’.

READ MORE: Read Snowtown serial killer James Vlassakis’ letter to his old cellmate